'Bad day at the office' for Tynedale

Posted by The Journal on Jan 26, 09 09:34 AM in Sport

John Shotton hopes Tynedale's Blackheath humbling will serve as a wake-up call.

The Corbridge men were outgunned 28-3 in East London, punished for sloppy fringe defence.

Rugby chairman Shotton said his side's set-piece work went well, but other than that, he rued slim pickings.

Shotton said: "We scrummaged well and our line-out went OK, the scrummage being pleasing against the best scrummagers in the league.

"But aside from that, it was just a very poor day at the office. It was the worst performance from us in a long, long time and hopefully we can channel that frustration into a much better performance and result next weekend.

"The way the results went elsewhere, a win would have put us in quite a strong position, but it just wasn't to be, so we have to get on with it and move on."

Flanker Grant Rastall was given oxygen on the pitch and rushed to hospital for an operation on a dislocated shoulder. With Stuart Johnson and Grant Beasley both already long-term shoulder injury casualties this term, Shotton said the timing was hardly helpful.

"That compounded feelings and frustrations for the lads, who were pretty low afterwards," he said. "But Grant is recovering well, the operation was a success and we'll look to help him through his recovery."

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