Blaydon 29 – Doncaster Demons 14
The Demons made the two and half hour journey to Blaydon on Sunday 5th November, with a squad of 11 due injuries picked up in the week. Carrie needed to rest an injury to her foot which resulted in changes being made in the scrum as Tigger was drafted into hooker and Trump taking her position as prop leaving captain Lara Croft to play second row and Beanie stepping into scrum half. Luckily the Demons had Zoe back from long term injury to resume her place at centre. With people playing out of position and Heather, Claire M and Becki making their debuts for the Demons the heat was on from the beginning.
Playing 10’s the Demons took the challenge that Blaydon presented and it was the home team that was making the early mistakes. Unfortunately Blaydon managed to use an overlap and a quick winger to open up the scoring and the fly half adding the extras to make the score 7-0 on the 10 minute mark.
The experienced Blaydon front row got the better of the Demons especially in the scrummages at the beginning of the game and an unfortunate slip in the defence led to the girls conceding again the score 12-0 as the conversion bounced off the posts.
With their feathers ruffled the Demons were able to benefit from Blaydon’s continuing infringing in the rucks with acting scrum half Beanie getting the ball out to the backs advancing at pace. Quick hands saw Lara Croft with the ball who managed to run round 2 defenders avoiding a tap tackle only to be taken down 5 metres from the line. Unfortunately the Demons were penalised for playing the ball on the floor. From the scrum the Blaydon winger went blind only to be driven into touch by the Demons defence. In the line out the Demons went for the pass to Trump at the front and drive the ball up the blind side and in for the try. Unfortunately the referee deemed the ball not to have gone 5 metres and the Demons were once again denied.
Undaunted the Demons fought for another try only to be disappointed as Blaydon broke through the Demons defence to score under the posts, the extras were added making the half time score 19-0.
It could have been a different team in the second half; certainly the Demons came back with a hunger to win. Forwards ran harder, tackles were lower, support was faster and the backs handling skills were smooth. It looked for a moment that all the hard work had paid off when Claire M. crashed over the line during a maul. Unfortunately the try yet again was disallowed. This phase of play resulted in Claire aggravating an old ankle injury and was replaced by Carrie. This caused another reshuffle of the squad as Caz took up position as hooker, Tigger moved to 2nd row, Lara Croft to scrum half and Beanie at centre.
With Caz getting up in the faces of the Blaydon squad and disrupting their game plan the Demons found themselves back on the Blaydon 22. Several phases of play saw the Demons putting pressure on the Blaydon line. In the end it was Lara Croft that crashed over the line to give the Demons their 1st try. Psycho managed to add the extras from wide of the posts making the score 19-7.
Blaydon came straight back at the Demons not wanting to be out done on home ground. Psycho, Beanie and Becki put up a tremendous effort to hold the ball up over the line but the ref award the try 24-7.
From the restart Blaydon ran back at the Demons, however the Demons rose to the challenge and put in some big tackles. Katie managed to stop the advancing fly half causing her to panic pass the ball resulting in an open ball on the floor which was quickly secured by Caz. Lara Croft got the ball out to the backs and with quick hands Becki had a break away down the wing with Lara Croft looping round in support. Becki was unfortunately taken out by the covering full back but Lara Croft managed to beat the Blaydon defence to the ball and run it in for the Demons second try under the posts. Psycho added the extras making the score 24-14.
Blaydon came fighting back and broke the Demons defence once again to make the final score 29-14.
Captains Demon of the game: Becki
Players Demon of the game: Lara Croft
Next Match: Sunday 19th November at Morpeth ko 2pm
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