Just after the half-time interval the heavy rain, that had welcomed Blackheath on their first ever visit to Tynedale Park, relented, out popped the sun, and we had a rainbow. And arguably that was the highlight of the afternoon for the Club and the loyal band of supporters who had made the long journey north to this delightful corner of the country. Tynedale may not have caused the carnage that Southend had done at Rectory Field a few weeks back, indeed they needed a dubious 78th minute penalty to squeak home, but in a similar fashion to that occasion, Blackheath had failed to capitalise on their forward superiority and let slip a match that was theirs for the taking.
No one will look back on this as a classic, but credit is due to Tynedale who tackled non-stop and scored two tries from limited opportunity. The first came on 14 minutes when, having seen his back-line spill the greasy ball three times already, fly-half Gavin Beasley sent through a neat grubber kick for full-back Jack Smales to collect and score. Then, within a couple of minutes of the re-start after the break, an overlap was created on the right-wing and, although there may have been a hint of a forward pass, outside-centre Jack Harrison crossed in the corner.
In their narrow defeat at Launceston the previous week, Tynedale had lost four men to the sin-bin and they would lose a further two in this match (and Blackheath conceded their first yellow card of the season with Gareth Jones despatched in the 19th minute) but it was back-chat that cost them most. Ten metres was added to bring a penalty within range for Matt Leek to add his second goal mid-way through the first half and the Club fly-half slotted his third when referee Brendan Fitzmaurice turned a defending scrum into a full penalty to the visitors for more nonsense just prior to the interval. Leek's final two goals late in the game, the second on 76 minutes when Blackheath had possibly their best move of the game, keeping the ball alive through a number of phases, had edged the Club into the lead, but just when Beasley couldn't land a thing on target at the other end, up stepped an unlikely deputy. Lock-forward Andrew Murray may not be the most graceful of goal-kickers but he was effective enough and his second successful strike at the very death was enough for a home victory.
The line-out was untidy but Blackheath had total control of the tight phases. Out wide, Steve Hamilton and Henry Barrett looked promising, Tom Lindsay again arrived to the batter some holes late on, but once more it all fell apart with poor kicking and handling, and Dave Allen will lie awake at night wondering how he lost control of the ball after bursting away from a ruck and only having one man to beat for the line.
Extra pre-season games may have been played with the new ELVs in mind but across the game it's clearly the diktat given to referees over the policing of the breakdown that is giving rise to most inconsistency and controversy (as has been said elsewhere, it might be an idea for the rugby authorities to clear up the existing laws before introducing new ones). Both sides could claim to having been mystified by some of the decision-making but in the final analysis if Mr Fitzmaurice did make one or two mistakes, Blackheath committed far more.
Scorers:
Tynedale Tries: Smales
Harrison
Pens: Murray
Blackheath Pens: Leek 5