Rugby round-up

A third successive defeat would have raised relegation alarm bells in National One, but they moved six points clear of their visitors, who are third bottom.

Blaydon trailed by one point with ten minutes left but were awarded a penalty try when they were about to complete a catchand- drive. They were prevented from grounding the ball by a player coming in from an offside position.

Although he had missed an easy one, the conversion was simple for Dan Kyle, while the potential match-winner for the Coventry kicker was 15 metres in from touch.

That try also came from a catch-and-drive with Blaydon down to 14 men for the last four minutes after replacement lock Andrew Archibald was sinbinned for a technical offence.

Back in his old position of fly half, Andrew Baggett controlled the Blaydon backs well and set up two tries as they built a 22-10 lead.

He made a break to send centre Paddy Dias over and floated a clever pass round a tackler for prop Robbie Kalbraier to burst on to and score from 12 metres.

Blaydon’s other first half try came from Tom Rock taking a quick penalty and sending lock Gavin Jones over, Kyle adding two conversions and a penalty.

But Coventry had the bigger pack and lock Sam Herrington barged over for two tries, one from a tap penalty as they sneaked 23-22 with 20 minutes left to set up the exciting finish.

Tynedale suffered a third successive defeat when they lost 27-22 at Redruth. With some players unable to travel, they conceded three breakaway tries after losing the ball to trail 20-3 at half-time.

Tynedale came back well with two tries by full back Sep Visser and one by scrum half Matthew Outson, Gavin Beasley adding two conversions to his first half penalty. But they also conceded a crucial fourth try to Redruth, who hung on under pressure in the last 15 minutes.

Westoe scored five tries in a 31-3 home win against Nuneaton in National Two North, with player-coach Mark Bedworth capping another fine display with a try and three conversions.

The other tries came from flanker Haydn Richards, centre David Haswell, full back Charlie Rayner and centre James Clark.

Middlesbrough bounced back from their dreadful display at Waterloo by ending the 100 per cent record of National Three North leaders Stockport.

Boro’s 24-14 win was even more convincing than the score suggested as the visitors scored a converted try at the death.

The victory came in spite of three late changes, which brought Tom Symon and Matthew Helm into the front row and Tom Bivens on to the wing.

Boro defended well, disrupted their visitors and scored three tries, the first two stemming from powerful breaks down the middle by Peter Homan, playing at centre instead of his usual position on the wing.

After Simon O’Farrell kicked a penalty Homan went under the posts for a 10-7 interval lead, then he broke through again and sent flanker Rory Duff over.

Following a period of stalemate the Boro forwards exerted pressure and lock Neil Young barged over, O’Farrell adding his third conversion.

West Hartlepool won 23-3 at home to Old Crossleyans and picked up a four-try bonus point with eight minutes left when they drove a ten-man maul over the line and replacement Carl Miller emerged with the ball.

Playing downwind, West scored three first half tries.

Stephen Stockdale, relishing the freedom of playing at No 8, crashed over for the first and Adam Larkin finished well for the second after good work by Darren Thomas.

Carl Robinson was held up over the line but the ball was moved through the backs from the resulting five-metre scrum and replacement centre Peter Hodgson wrestled through a couple of tackles to score for a 15-3 interval lead.

West controlled the ball well in the second half and Gareth Foreman’s penalty after 62 minutes stretched the lead before Miller earned the bonus.

Durham City needed a late try from winger Charlie Plummer to clinch a 13-6 home win against Hartlepool Rovers, for whom the narrow defeat earned only their second point of the season.

Jeff Roberts touched down in the left corner to reward City’s early pressure and just before half-time fly half A J Smith added a drop goal. Chris Sainty brought Rovers back into it with two second half penalties.

Unbeaten Gateshead stretched their lead at the top of D and N One by collecting their eighth four-try bonus point from eight games at home to Novos.

They are eight points clear of Darlington, who were relieved to consolidate second place by coming away from Sunderland with a 22-10 win.

Five of the team who beat Wallsend 100-12, including Richard Snowball, were rested and five of the selected players cried off on the morning for a variety of reasons including a diabetes attack.

An enthusiastic Sunderland team scored the first try before Darlington began to assert themselves, only to lose centre Cameron Mitchell with a suspected broken jaw. He was replaced by Leigh Johnson.

Tries were scored by Joe Oselton and Henry Carver in the first half, then a break by scrum half Mark Baldwin set up a third for winger Connor Elser. Nick Baldwin added two conversions and a penalty.

Stockton were without eight first-choice players and suffered their biggest home defeat for some time in losing 44-10 to Alnwick.

Their troubles mounted when hooker Matthew Austin ran 15 metres to score then retired hurt, their only other score coming when scrum half Rob Green broke from close to his own line and sent winger Shaun McLaren over from halfway.

That reduced the deficit to 20- 10 well into the second half, but Alnwick added three converted tries and a penalty.