Nuns 20 - 24 Blaydon - 08/02/2010

Nuns came within a whisker of ending their National One drought in a thriller of a game against Blaydon at Liberty Way when Mike Umaga’s side pushed the visitors right up until the final whistle.
It was 11th playing 15th at the start of the game but with a big difference in points separating the two sides and Stuart Friswell was well aware of the scale of the task in hand.
Nuns discipline improved over previous weeks and the fact that they kept 15 players on the park all afternoon helped to keep this fixture alive right up until the final whistle.
The home side conceded their first try on three minutes when swift hands saw Blaydon winger Adam Armstrong romp over in the corner before pushing his own conversion attempt wide of the target.
Scrumhalf Huw Thomas replied for Nuns three minutes later when Blaydon were penalised in the scrum thumping his penalty over from 38 metres to cut the deficit to 3-5.
Poor ball control in the centre of the park gifted the visitors their second try on seven minutes and with Nuns defence stretched Adam Dehaty ran in for the try in the corner whilst once again Armstrong failed to hit the mark with the kick.
In what was beginning to look like a very bad day at the office for coach Stuart Friswell Nuns leaked their third try in 15 minutes, a quick tap penalty  from five metres out and Gavin Jones crashed over, Armstrong adding the simplest of conversions to give the visitors a healthy 17-3 lead.
To their credit Nuns were never really out of the game and were rewarded for their efforts on 21 minutes with another successful Thomas penalty kick sailing over from 35 metres out followed by a third splitting the uprights on 27 minutes to cut the deficit to 17-9 where the score remained until half time.
Friswell made some changes at half time Richard Johnson and Sam Macdonald making way for Dan Poulton and Tim Pickard and Nuns looked the brighter side coming out for the second half.
A period of good pressure was topped off by a beautifully struck David Johnston drop to leave the home side just five points short.
Blaydon’s response though was immediate and the visitors collected the four try bonus point on 71 minutes with a try from Andrew Baggett converted by Armstrong.
Quite where referee Marcus Caton was getting some of his decisions from would be a story in itself but when he wrongly called a Huw Thomas charge-down a deliberate knock-on the scrumhalf was denied a potential try that would have made the final score very different, his decisions were generally slow and inconsistent and it was to the credit of the two sides on the park that entertainment was maintained.
The final quarter saw Nuns play some of their best rugby for a number of weeks culminating in a brilliant move up the centre of the park by both forwards and backs which was topped off by lock Llyr Griffiths crashing over for the try but for the second time in as many weeks Huw Thomas found the woodwork rather than the target with the conversion.
Nuns were unlucky not to go over again as they piled on the pressure but grabbed themselves a well deserved losing bonus point when Thomas added the final penalty of the afternoon five minutes from time.
Nuns
Tries: Llyr Griffiths (71)
Drop Goal: David Johnston (46)
Penalties: Huw Thomas (6, 21, 27, 75)
Blaydon
Tries: Adam Armstrong (3), Adam Dehaty (7), Gavin Jones (15), Andrew Baggett (48)
Conversions: Adam Armstrong (15, 48)
Star Man: Tim Douglas (Nuneaton)
Nuns: Moore, Denning, Johnson, Douglas, Macdonald J, Johnston, Thomas, Taylor, Bray, Macdonald S, Hurst, Griffiths, Smith, Critchley, Aston (Reps: Pickard, Ryan, Cooksammy, Roy-Smith N, Poulton)

by Simon Veasey


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