Two bonus point wins in consecutive weeks and 116 points scored on the road against two bottom three sides, and the 12th win of the season against opposition with one win and one draw amid sixteen losses prior to today’s game.
Club were relieved to complete the 500+ mile round trip to the North East for the second time of asking within a month (having had the game cancelled 1 hour before kick off on 25th January), and returned with a decent points haul for their troubles totally outgunning relegation-threatened opposition. Despite the home side only having won once at home all season on the 9th November (v Leicester Lions), the applause and cheers of local fans still echoed around the 1% full 25,000 seat venue as the men in blue and white hoops entered the arena.
Having allowed James Shanahan’s side to score an unanswered point each minute of the first period, DMP played with considerable pride to halt the rout in the second forty, in a tie that was otherwise heading towards something resembling a cricket score.
The northern defences were breached as early as minute two: post line-out ball with Jake Hennessey’s mazy run bamboozling the defence, offloading to Tex Cavubati who made ground all afternoon and stretched across the line. Just 7 minutes later, after a sensational line break from Archie Holland, with Billy Harding and Tex Cavubati making ground from offloads, the ball was spun wide right at pace by Jordan Burns. This allowed Mike Hoyt, impressive in attack and defence all afternoon, to blast through defenders to get his name on the scoresheet.
Although failing to gather most of the restarts looking into the late winter sun, Club still managed to craft good field positions. With 17 mins on the clock, Andrew Boye side-stepped around two defenders and passed to Archie Holland, who in-turn also weaved past another two defenders to score. Have the props been practising side-stepping in training?
The try bonus point was secured just 21 mins into the encounter with a proper team try initiated by a line-break from Oskar Hirskyj-Douglas. With two defenders hanging on, he offloaded to Jordan Burns who made yardage and passed to Jake Hennessey. Finally, the ball was flicked over a defender’s head to Tom Baldwin, who walked in for what could be the easiest try he’ll score in this campaign, proving his lethality from three meters out.
The away fans were still being treated to in excess of 1 point per minute when Billy Harding notched up his 15th of the term after line out ball and a strong drive from Tex Cavubati.
As the half was coming to a close, the crowd was treated to the try of the game. Instead of settling for an immediate half-time orange as the clock went into the red, an overlap on the right was recognised by the Blackheath back division very close to their own try line. The ball worked its way effortlessly to Jake Lloyd out wide who went onto make decent yardage over the half-way line. As defenders closed in, he spotted an advancing Jordan Burns who scooped up a kick infield from the winger. The ball popped up into his hands perfectly on the opposition 22m line, allowing his jet-fuelled boots to do the rest, making the defence look like statues as he flew in under the posts.
It was always going to be a big ask for the away team to maintain such scoring momentum and so it proved, with the first points of the 2nd half going to the home-side who, having taken advantage of the sin binning of Tex Cavubati for a deliberate knock-on, worked the ball out wide right for no.14 Harvey Johnston to score on the overlap.
The DMP side in the 2nd half played with more sprint, pride and endeavour. They attempted to upset their Well Hall-based opposition at every turn, as Club’s cohesion was disrupted by the plethora of replacements being unleashed by both benches. Indeed, it took the diligent tracking back and a brave tackle by Auguy Slowik to force DMP’s no.5 Ethan Hall-Lyon into touch, after he had charged down the wing pinning his ears back in acres of space heading for what would have been a certain try.
Eventually though, class was hard to keep down with POTM Jake Hennessey exploiting a small gap between two defenders on the left. Showing a devastating turn of pace and fend that the backs in blue couldn’t match, he scored with 4 mins remaining.
With seconds left on the clock, DMP’s 7, Joe Craggs, attempted a long heroic pass within his own 22 which was very well read by Jake Hennessey. Leaping like a salmon, he caught the ball with his fingertips and largely ran in unopposed, netting a brace for himself and bringing another game’s tally to over half a century up in consecutive weeks.
Next week Blackheath Rugby returns to Well Hall entertaining Manchester’s Sedgley Park. Kick off is at 15:00.
DMP
Tries: Johnston 53
Conv: Law 53
Blackheath
Tries: Cavubati 2, Hoyt 9, Holland 16, Baldwin 21, Harding 30, Burns 39, Hennessey 69, 80
Conv: Ffitch 2, 9, 16, 21, 30, 39, 80
| 15 | SLOWIK, Augustin |
| 14 | LLOYD, Jake |
| 13 | GILMOUR, Findlay |
| 12 | HIRSKYJ-DOUGLAS, Oskar |
| 11 | HENNESSEY, Jake |
| 10 | FFITCH, Tom |
| 9 | BURNS, Jordan |
| 1 | HOLLAND, Archie |
| 2 | HARDING, Billy (VC) |
| 3 | BOYE, Andrew |
| 4 | STRADWICK, Tom |
| 5 | CAVUBATI, Tex |
| 6 | HOYT, Mike |
| 7 | SMART, Josh |
| 8 | BALDWIN, Tom (C) |
| 16 | WALLIKER, Ollie |
| 17 | DAVIS, Will |
| 18 | SANUSI, Korede * |
| 19 | DALY, Jack |
| 20 | MARSH, Rory |
* Former Blackheath Junior
Mark Sheridan
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