West End RFC

West End 0 – 52 Blyth II

A poor day for West End against a much changed Blyth team put up against them. No excuses for the home team after their recent success in big matches.

With a couple of Christmas parties taking place the night before, it was needless to say some of our players were not in the best shape at kick off. It didn't really start well, giving Blyth a quicker try than West End’s one against Consett. This then resulted in some infighting which didn't calm the situation, it only made it worse in the first half giving Blyth multiple tries putting West End deep down in a loss before the first half was out.

A number of quick successive injuries came in the pack with Dean Henderson, Michael Pritchard and Mike Marra coming off with injuries. The back line was diminished early on with Craig Allmond being withdrawn and West End’s substitutes being used before the break. Scott Walker made a welcome return to the fold after missing the last couple of matches.

Then the second half came and the home side brought the fight to Blyth showing them a glimpse of what they can do with some good forward play moving into the Blyth 22 repeatedly, unfortunately West End did not capitalise from these opportunities.

Blyth slotted a few more tries to settle the game down for them and giving West End no chance of fighting back.

Even with a depleted pack the team still competed in the scrums and eventually managed to string some coherent lineouts. With only 2 recognised front rowers on the pitch, John McGrann moved up initially to hook and then across to loosehead, Callum Venters making a welcome return from injury into the 2 ^nd row and try scoring phenomenon Ewan Pritchard doing his best Jonny May impression at 6 by holding onto the front row’ legs during scrums.

The trusted ‘fire’ call managed to get West End a few yards up the pitch with Ken Purvis making a great run and beating a number of players.

Blyth took control from the off and showed consistency power throughout. For West End this was a wakeup call for when they face teams of a similar calibre. West End didn't stop fighting and took the loss well in the end at least this gives them room to work and now they know what needs to be done for 2017.

The score ended 52-0 to Blyth, a very bitter pill to swallow after a build-up of good performances in recent weeks.

We will regroup back in 2017 and hope everyone in the West End family has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.