Newark miss out on a Final Place

Notts, Lincs & Derbys Cup - semi-final
v Derby, Wed, March 17

Newark players and supporters beat the traffic jams in reaching Derby on Wednesday evening, but the home team then prevailed, 21-14, in the Three Counties Cup semi-final.

Derby avenged defeat in last season’s final to end Newark’s two-year hold on the title. An excellent contest brought attacking rugby from both teams amid some fierce forward exchanges.

Newark only assembled a full team a few minutes before the scheduled kick off after traffic jams in the Nottingham area prevented the punctual arrival of some players.

Derby opened the stronger and opened the scoring in the 10th minute through a converted try.

All of Newark’s points came from wing Jamie Eveleigh. He touched down the only try in the first half after centre Alex Moore had forced a five-metre scrum following a penalty attempt by the wing.

Eveleigh failed to improve his own score but did kick two penalty goals in a first half where a second Derby try helped the home team to a 15-11 lead at the interval.

Newark enjoyed the territorial advantage in the second half but only had a third penalty from Eveleigh to show for their efforts against two penalties for Derby.

The best chance for a second Newark try came from a typical attack by Buddha Waqalevu though two good attacking line-outs were also wasted.

Team: Cormack; Buddha, Collishaw, Moore, Eveleigh; Cox, Clark; Barker, Tomlinson, Booley, Tatham, Evans, Naylor, L Cove, Webster.
Subs: Mills, Byrom, Henfrey.
Try: Eveleigh. Penalty goals: Eveleigh (3).

Rob Wildman