National League Two North: Wharfedale 19 Blaydon 27

SOME veteran Wharfedale observers were querying afterwards why referee Callum Sharp was not stricter in penalising Blaydon in the third quarter of their National League Two North clash at The Avenue.

For six-and-a-half minutes, the Green Machine were camped deep in Blaydon's 22 and had five scrums, three of which collapsed.
The end result was a yellow card for visiting centre James Cooney.

However, there was bafflement among those experienced watchers among a crowd of 425 as to why there was no additional yellow card for the north-easterners or certainly a penalty try and a yellow card.

But Wharfedale hooker Dan Stockdale was having none of it, saying: "If it wasn't for referees, we would not have a game.

"We should not be relying on the decisions of the referee to win us a game.

"The decisions didn't help us, but we shouldn't have let Blaydon get all those points in the first half.

"We started well but we made too many errors and they were on top and their No 10 (Joel Matavesi, whose two elder brothers Sam and Josh have already been capped by Fiji) played well."

Wharfedale could not start with their anticipated 15 as second row Adam Howard was delayed in traffic and didn't arrive until ten minutes before kick-off.

Simon Borrill therefore started, with Howard coming on in the 28th minute, but Stockdale wasn't buying that disruption aspect either, saying: "Adam is a great impact player off the bench and we have two experienced second rows in the squad already."

With Blaydon arriving at The Avenue in second from bottom, a place behind Wharfedale, this defeat, and the fact that Tom Barrett's conversion at the death missed and therefore they didn't even earn a losing bonus point, was no doubt a blow.

However, Stockdale: "We have enough to get out of this situation and we aren't even talking about relegation or anything like that."

Wharfedale must have been delighted with their first scrum, pushing Blaydon ten metres uphill, but little else went right for them in the first half.

The visitors went ahead in the seventh minute when centre Tom Small broke through and was backed up by winger Jack Appleton and prop David Kilpatrick for lock Harry Borthwick to score.

Fly half Joel Matavesi missed the conversion, but that was the only kicking error by the former Exeter, Swansea, Ospreys and Redruth player who is now with Newcastle Falcons alongside brother Josh.

Joel extended Blaydon's lead with a penalty in the 15th minute after the hosts were deemed to have pulled  down a maul.

When Wharfedale did get into Blaydon's half, they tended to give away penalties, which was frustrating for them, or Matavesi's boot pinned them back, and things got worse for the Greens in the 25th minute when Borthwick stripped Stockdale in a tackle and galloped away to score his and Blaydon's second try.

Matavesi kicked the easy conversion and Barrett, whose restart went straight out, missed a penalty in the 32nd minute.

Blaydon's fly half then showed him how it should be done by landing penalties in the 35th and 39th minutes and, just to cap things off, landed a sweetly-struck 35-metre drop goal on the stroke of half-time.

Wharfedale needed to strike swiftly in the second half, and did so five minutes after the interval when Barrett cut through a gap to make the line and add the conversion after excellent continuity that encompassed 20 phases.

Then came that key period in front of Blaydon's posts, which soaked up almost ten minutes, Wharfedale twice being held up over the line to boot after a Joe Altham break.

By the time that lock George Hedgley crossed in the 63rd minute, Barrett converting, the Greens were beginning to run out of time after Blaydon had run down the clock during that intense period of pressure deep in their 22.

Matavesi's successful penalty – he was limping heavily by the end of the match – five minutes later made things even more difficult, and there wasn't even the comfort of a losing bonus point when the lively Ollie Cicognini went over in the 80th minute, which was the culmination of 25 phases.

Barrett missed the conversion that would have given the Greens that small consolation, but the damage had been done in the first half.

At least the watching Josh Burridge should have recovered sufficiently from his hamstring injury to be available for next Saturday's derby at Huddersfield.