Newark dominated for a long period

REPORT WRITTEN BY ROB WILDMAN

Saturday, November 22

Midlands One East

Belgrave 26 Newark 13

Newark had plenty of possession and territory at Belgrave yet conspired to lose a league match they could easily have won.
A second-half try from substitute back row Cameron Curry put Newark back into a match they had trailed 19-6 just after the interval when Belgrave scored a third try.

But Newark never capitalised fully on Belgrave losing two players to the sin bin and allowed the Leicester team a fourth try in the final moments to finish a disappointing afternoon.

Curry had taken his place on the bench in a reshuffled match-day squad which saw the return of Chris Tate at centre and Will Britten on the wing because of injury to Nick Galinski.

Up front, Gareth Bartsch took over in the back row from James Newman who had an ankle problem.
Bartsch injured a knee early on and was replaced by Curry as Newark made a good opening only to concede two tries to help the home team to a 14-0 lead.
Newark fought back in the second quarter and two penalty goals from fly half Matt Cox cut the advantage at half-time to a Belgrave lead of 14-6.

A good start to the second half was essential for Newark yet they proceeded to knock on from the kick off to give Belgrave an attacking scrum which led to a third try.

Newark dominated for a long period after that score and Curry scored off the back of a scrum which Cox converted.
That score cut Belgrave’s lead to 19-13. It proved to be Newark’s final points of the afternoon despite plenty of possession and good territory.

Belgrave finished off by working a try off a rolling maul following a line-out immediately after Newark had Lewis Cove sin binned.
To finish off, Belgrave had a third player sent to the cooler but the match was up for the visitors.

Newark first team take a break next Saturday and resume league action on Saturday, Dec 6 for the visit of Bugbrooke, kick off 2.15pm, to Kelham Road.

Team: Mark Byrom; Britten, Challenger, Tate, Stark; Cox, Clark (Capt); Barnsdale, Tomlinson, Price, Tatham, Downing, Bartsch, Cove, Webster.

Subs: Dunning, Curry, O’Leary.

Try: Curry.

Con: Cox.

Penalty goals: Cox (2).

Rob Wildman