Barnes hand as Heath given Big lesson torrid time
Replacements:
BLACKHEATH:
Star man
BARNES taught Blackheath a lesson in scrummaging at Barn Elms as they dominated in the tight from start to finish.
The Club were penalised on their own ball nearly every time and suffered three yellow cards, which in truth could have been added to in the final few minutes of the game when the home team were camped on the visiting line.
Blackheath started the game at incredible pace but the Barnes defence held firm, as it has all season, and from their first foray into their opponent’s half Blackheath transgressed and Simon Keller slotted the penalty to give Barnes the lead 3-0 after 12 minutes.
After 20 minutes Blackheath evened the score at 3-3, Ollie Burgess converting the penalty.
The game was played at tremendous pace throughout with Barnes defence supreme, and Blackheath gradually ran out of ideas, their backs taking the ball too laterally as the game went on.
Barnes lost prop Alex Wood on 27 minutes for a deliberate knock-on, but again the green and gold defence held firm in the eye of the storm, and from a rare visit into the Blackheath half executed a series of pick and drives and were awarded a penalty for their endeavours,
Keller doing the honours to give the home side the lead 6-3 at the break.
The only disappointing moment in the first half for Barnes was a nasty knee injury to second row James Bloxham.
Barnes were out of the blocks like men possessed in the second half, taking the game to the visitors.
They continued to inflict pain on the opposition’s front row, and N0.8 Tom Baldwin visiting the bin for 10 minutes from one dominant scrum on
the 45th minute and Ryan Nixon scored the first of his three pushover tries on 46 minutes as the Barnes scrum continually pushed Blackheath backwards, penalty after penalty being conceded in the process.
Barnes extended their lead to 11-3, Keller missing the conversion. The visiting scrum creaked, and with it still going backwards there was a yellow for hooker Ollie Walliker in the 60th minute. The green and gold machine rolled Blackheath over the line for Nixon to score again on 63 minutes. Keller missed the extra but Barnes led 16-3 with 17 minutes to go.
Their scrum was rampant at this stage and, five minutes later, Nixon completed his hat-trick with another pushover try. With Keller off target with the conversion, Barnes led 21-3, and the game was effectively over.
The Barnes massif was delirious, and several shouts of “scrum porn” could be heard from the supporters.
Blackheath did score a consolation try through Jack Daly, converted by Tom Ffitch, to peg the score back to 21-10, but Barnes spent the rest of the game camped on the Blackheath line.
The final score was 2110. Some might say that Blackheath had nothing to play for, but they were well beaten by a Barnes team who played with great control.