Newark Rugby Club
Midlands Two East North
Newark 27 Long Eaton 33
Newark made a bright start to their latest league match but ultimately were outgunned by Long Eaton at Kelham Road.
An early try for scrum-half Findlay Tweedie, who grabbed a further try late on, gave Newark an excellent opening. Other scores came from wing Josh Watts and full-back Robbie Hunter-Shaw.
Two bonus points were the consolation from the afternoon to leave Newark in fourth place.
Match report…
Another fast start from Newark saw them go 7-0 after only 8 minutes following significant pressure on the Long Eaton line. Returning scrum-half Findlay Tweedie going over from short range.
Lock Jason Matthysz had to leave the field after 15 minutes with what looked like a serious shoulder injury. James Brogden replaced him.
The Newark defence was breached following some lack lustre tackling to make it 7-5.
Newark bounced back with some pressure of their own on the Long Eaton line following a series of penalties a drives close in.
Prop Mason Coulam found himself clear on the left and sent out a delightful overhead pass to put wing Josh Watts clear for a try in the corner.
With the half drawing to a close a strong run out of defence by Rhys Overland feeding inside to Matt Cox eventually saw the visitors penalised for a deliberate knock on. Cox converted the penalty to make it 15-5.
Flanker Tom Crosby had to leave the field with the recurrence of a shoulder injury. He was replaced by Logan Watt.
Returning prop Fran Appleton showed up well in the first half and was given a breather before half time with Ben Wells making his 1XV debut from the bench.
Unfortunately the half-time whistle didn’t come soon enough. Long Eaton exerted significant pressure on the Newark line and eventually went over for a converted try to give a half time score of 15-12.
The second half started badly for the home side and missed tackles allowed the visitors to go over for a converted try to give them the lead for the first time in the game, 15-19. However, Newark fought back well and full back Robbie Hunter-Shaw went over for an unconverted try to give Newark the slenderest of advantages, 20-19.
Going into the last quarter Long Eaton ran strongly and a tiring Newark side fell off too many tackles to allow the visitors to go over for 2 converted tries to give them a 20-33 lead and saw Newark facing the prospect of walking away with no points.
However, to their credit and with time running out they exerted enormous pressure on the visitor’s line and forced Long Eaton to concede a series of penalties.
With a miss-firing line out Newark opted for scrums and forced the visitors back over their own line with a tremendous drive which saw scrum half Tweedie dot down for his second try of the afternoon.
Fly half Cox held his nerve to convert to give Newark 2 bonus points but ultimately a disappointing 27-33 loss.
Team: Hunter-Shaw; Overland, Briiten (capt), Birch, Watts; Cox, Tweedie; Coulam, Himsworth, Appleton, Ellison, Matthysz, O’Leary, Crosby, Garland.
Subs: Wells, Watt, Brogden.
Tries: Tweedie (2), Watts, Hunter-Shaw. Conversions: Cox (2). Penalty goal: Cox.
