Blaydon outgunned

AFTER a summer of rebuilding Blaydon were under no illusions that they could hang on to fourth place in National League One, and after Saturday’s lesson they will revert to the more realistic aspiration of survival.

Most of their games had been against the weaker teams, whereas Scottish had played the top sides, and there is clearly a big difference.

It was obvious from the moment Blaydon lost an early scrum against the head they were going to struggle and they never could create any kind of platform.

The Exiles enjoyed no weight advantage, but their superior scrummaging was crucial, and Blaydon also struggled to secure their own line-out ball.

They felt a similar scoreline at Redruth last week flattered the hosts, but they could have no complaints about the margin this time as they were never in the game.

The loss of half a team, including talismanic captain Dave Guthrie, prolific scorer Andrew Fenby, and midfield general Martin Shaw, will not be easily overcome.

They will need to make better use of former Newcastle Falcons centre Adam Dehaty, who looked out of position at full back.

While Scottish exploited this through their tactical kicking, most of Blaydon’s kicks went straight to opponents who were perfectly capable of launching strong counter-attacks.

The new young half back pairing of Sam Thorne and Elliott O’Brien were under too much pressure to launch a backline in which the defensive organisation was often found wanting.

Blaydon could also do with a big No 6 to balance a back row in which Jason Smithson and Scott Riddell can exist comfortably at this level.

Prop Robbie Kalbraier has also proved his worth, but it didn’t help when he was ludicrously sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on which was no more than an instinctive effort to grab the ball.

The scrum problems appeared to be laid at the door of the other prop, Justin Clarke, who was replaced before half-time by Alex McKenzie.

An O’Brien drop goal had Blaydon level at 3-3 until the 13th minute, when they were turned over at a scrum and survived two penalties to the corner before Scottish opted for a scrum when awarded another penalty. They then performed a simple switch in midfield to send the inside centre over by the posts.

The second try resulted from Blaydon being caught in possession as they attempted to deal with a kick out of defence.

The visitors won a scrum on the right and moved the ball out for the left winger to score.

With Smithson in the sinbin for holding on, Scottish’s outside centre cut through to score a converted try, and at 22-3 after 37 minutes the contest was over.

O’Brien kicked a penalty, but any hope of a second half fightback ended when Blaydon ran the ball on their own 22 and James Fitzpatrick’s pass was intercepted by the Scottish full back, who cruised over and added the conversion.

Blaydon belatedly sent on Andrew Baggett for Dehaty and scored a try when Riddell broke up the middle from a quickly-taken penalty and Fitzpatrick bullocked over in the left corner.