Brace of Triesfrom Stark Stuns Loughborough

A hard crushing 39 minutes of rugby played at bone cracking intensity saw the territory advantage in no doubt to the home teame utilising their greater size, strength and agression as well as the slope to keep Newark pined down and on the back foot. Denying the home side a score through sheer determination and bravery, it took a moment of opportunism and a touch of briliance by James Stark picking up a ball 35 meters out on the wing, showing the defence the inside he then strode out strongly on the outside to open his long legs to leave Loughborough grasping at shadows to score next to the posts. Mat Cox converted to take us in at the break 7 points up.

A change of tactics, based around quicker ball and playing the game away from the home teams streangths, reaped immediate rewards. Newark's faster, fitter backs made use of the ball won by our scrapping forwards to run in a futher 2 tries, a second for Stark and a fine effort from Bridges to win the game by 30 points to 5. Matt Cox made a great contribution, slotting 3 penalties to keep the scoreboard turning over and adding the extra points to all three tries. Loughboroughs drive over try was a small consolation for the effort they expended and they were well beaten in the end by a fine team performance by the Newark Pals.