Saturday 14th March turned out to be a high stakes day for both Blackheath senior sides in their respective league clashes, with the first team in third place hosting Rotherham in first and the Club XV in third taking on Richmond 2’s (Vikings) in first place.
The competitive nature of the games in the second team league ensures that our first team have players from the Club XV ready and able to step up. The Club XV train and prepare with the first team. They are one squad, one Club. Credit must go to the coaching team as a whole and to Jon West in particular.
Saturday’s game against Richmond Vikings was a terrific advert for both the game and the league. Played in warm and sunny conditions on a lovely surface, Richmond kicked off down a slight slope and with a brisk wind. Both sides showed great defence in holding each other out for the first 20 minutes with both sides sharing even possession but three converted tries for Richmond in 15 minutes seemed to knock the stuffing out of Club. All three scores were well taken but came from individual and collective errors. The final five minutes of the half became unstructured and half-time could not come soon enough.
HT: Richmond Vikings 21-0 Club XV
Richmond started the second half scoring immediately from the restart kick after a mix-up in the Blackheath pack and a poor exit. The easy conversion made it 28-0 with virtually a half to go. It could have gone badly from there, but it was Blackheath’s 18-year-old tight head prop, TJ Fitzgerald, who stole a loose ball from a scrappy lineout some 5 metres out and barged over for his first ever try in men’s rugby! Matt Dalrymple slotted the conversion.
Blackheath suddenly had belief and were winning the collisions and really making inroads. A quite beautiful move from great forward control saw the ball move through hands to Laurence Ticehurst at 15 who crossed for a fine try which was well converted by Matt Dalrymple to half the deficit. Richmond 28-14 Blackheath
The fightback was now truly on, and the intensity ramped up from both sides. With only three on the bench, Blackheath were limited in what they could do tactically and instead had to react to injuries and with massive hits going in from both sides we soon had to make changes at prop, back row and centre. With just 20 minutes remaining and from good work from the pack Matt Dalrymple was able to score a good try which he again converted to make it 28-21. Game on!
The next 10-12 minutes was a serious examination of Blackheath’s will and determination and how fitting it was that the captain, Nathaniel Ticehurst, scored the fourth try which was converted again by the trusty boot of Matt Dalrymple to level the scores at 28-28.
The final 10 minutes seemed to last an eternity with both sides going for the win and both sides displaying ferocious defence. Matt Dalrymple’s drop goal attempt from halfway fell agonisingly short before Richmond had a back row player yellow carded with minutes to go and before the referee brought a magnificent game to a close. In the second half Blackheath made the double tackles count and dominated the rucks with some great jackaling.
Notable mentions should go to Man of the Match, Ben Murphy, at loose head prop on debut, and Matt Dalrymple who controlled the game well from fly half scoring a try and kicking all four conversions. It was a superb second half comeback. Great credit to all 18 players. The Richmond Director of Rugby who watched the whole game said to me that Blackheath were fantastic in the second half, praise indeed!
Blackheath’s Club XV remain third in their league.
Blackheath Tries: Fitzgerald, L. Ticehurst, Dalrymple, N. Ticehurst
Conversions: Dalrymple x4
Club XV
| Ben Murphy |
| Daniel Orubo |
| TJ Fitzgerald |
| Korede Sanusi |
| Andy Lock |
| Dominic Simpson Gray |
| Lewis Antwis |
| Nathaniel Ticehurst(c) |
| Dylan Coetzee |
| Matt Dalrymple |
| Filippo Caminati |
| Leo Jowett |
| Daf Lloyd |
| Hugo Watson |
| Laurence Ticehurst |
| Tawanda Chikuruhne |
| Hayden Riley |
| Ben Dickinson |
Craig Molloy
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