Coach Griffiths praises Tigers after impressive win against Blackheath (From Prestwich and Whitefield Guide)

Coach Griffiths praises Tigers after impressive win against Blackheath

11:00am Thursday 11th October 2012 in Sport

By Neil Bonnar

CLIVE Griffiths paid tribute to the players after Sedgley Park produced their best result for years on Saturday.

The Whitefield men destroyed a Blackheath side which is hotly-tipped for promotion from the National League One.

Griffiths, the former Wales and top-flight league coach, has made a big difference since arriving at Park Lane in the summer.

But Saturday’s 40-22 victory over Blackheath at Park Lane – secured with two tries by Mike Dutton and one each from Steve Collins, Matt Riley and Phil Largan, three penalties and three conversions by Collins – sent out a message to the rest of the league that not only can Sedgley beat anybody on their day, they can demolish them.

Griffiths’ men were 40-10 up until they had a man sin-binned with 10 minutes left and Blackheath put some respectability on the board.

“Our players showed how good they could be,” said the coach.

“Blackheath are much fancied to go back up and it was an outstanding win by our boys.

“But they have done well all season. They have taken everything on board that we have been trying to do, and they have put it into practice.”

Sedgley have won three and lost three so far to leave them seventh ahead of Saturday’s visit to Esher.

And Griffiths believes it could have been better.

“You have to have seen it to believe how we lost our games,” he said.

“Some have been self-inflicted, some have been bad luck. We blew the game at Fylde last week, and against Rosslyn Park we camped on their line and couldn’t get over it.

“When I came the priority was to look at the points against, then the reduction of penalties because we have some good players here who can attack.

“The players have what I call tackle hunger now and we have the best points against column in the division.

“Blackheath were averaging 40 points a game before our game, and to keep them down to one try up to the sin-binning was a great effort.

“I’m satisfied with the start but it’s not a one-year plan or anything short term. The ultimate goal is to play a brand of rugby that people are enthusing about in the bar because I am a fan of rugby as well as a coach and I don’t want to see the ball kicked up in the air all the time.”