My heart is still pounding out of my chest. What on earth was that second half? We were clinging on for dear life at the Nick Newbold Arena in what they’re calling a ten-try thriller, but I’m calling it a near heart attack.
Everything started so beautifully. We built up a massive 20-point lead by half-time, and the boys were looking absolutely excellent. Blackheath had gotten a sneaky early score when Tom Hughes raced in from halfway while we all stood around waiting for the ref to blow for an obvious knock-on, but our pack woke up instantly. We shunted Tom Ball over the line from close range, and then Bruce Houston—who was brilliant all day, finishing with 13 points—put in this gorgeous kick-pass for Jack Reeves to finish neatly. The last ten was all Cov. Ethan Hunt was an absolute machine, grabbing two close-range tries while Blackheath just kept giving away penalties until Edies Ekizode finally saw yellow. When Josh Barton finished off a fantastic Morgan Strong break, I honestly thought we were going to run away with it.
How wrong was I? If any of us in the stands were expecting an avalanche of second-half points, we were sadly disappointed. Our concentration just completely lapsed. Blackheath’s scrum-half Jordan Burns put on a brilliant display, and he gave me absolute nightmares with a 55-metre chip-and-chase score that had us all chewing our nails down to the quick. They totally dominated that second half, ‘winning’ it 3-21.
Alex Rae tried to stem the tide by sending on seven replacements at once, and we spent what felt like hours camped on their line, only to be held up in-goal twice by a determined defence. Houston finally slotted a long-range penalty to give us a nine-point cushion with just 11 minutes left, but the relief was agonizingly short-lived. Even after Sam Morley missed a simple three-pointer for them, Blackheath grabbed a late lifeline when he converted Josh Smart’s late try.
The final whistle couldn’t come fast enough. With Matt McNab in the sin bin, we were down to 14 men and getting driven back a full 60 metres by their relentless forwards. It was an unbearably tense finale, and by the time we finally forced that match-clinching turnover, I think the whole stadium let out one massive collective gasp of relief.
Alex Rae was spot on after the match—we completely dodged a bullet. He was right to say our second-half energy wasn’t good enough and that we were our own worst enemies. He hoped we’d learned from the defeat at Rotherham, but clearly, there’s loads of work still to do before the next fixture. A nervy win is a win, but my nerves are completely shredded!