Newark Seconds Beat Dinnington Seconds 4 tries to 1

Another cold Saturday afternoon, this time under the grey skies of South Yorkshire, saw Newark’s Boys in Blue take on Dinnington’s seconds in this mid-winter friendly.

Newark - as so often the case this season – were short-staffed, with a bare 15 making it to the fixture, and with Coach Byrom away having his knee put back together, they were short on management as well. Nonetheless, this was a well-balanced side, with an aggressive, mobile pack and a good set of running backs with an eye for space, and Captain Nick Moore did a commendable job of bringing the team together.

The visitors took the lead in the first few minutes, after a determined chase from Ford’s kick-off had Dinnington’s more traditionally built forwards milling in confusion as the Newark pack swarmed over them, with mini-bulldog Godfrey flattening their open side who had been the unlucky recipient of the ball. The Home side duly conceded a kickable penalty in front of the posts, taken in workmanlike fashion by Ford to put Newark ahead 0-3.

Ford was back on kicking duty some 10 minutes later, after a lovely run by Moss up the left wing wrong-footed several Dinnington players, resulting in a try by the posts – 0-10.

The home side, clearly flustered by the assault in the first quarter of the match, took the opportunity of one of their players leaving the field through injury to regain some composure, using their veteran forwards to more effect and battering their way slowly up towards the Newark twenty-two. After a bruising series of rucks and mauls, they managed to get quick ball from a lineout, found a gap in the visitors’ line and went over between the posts – 7-10.

Earlier in the season, Newark might have been fazed by this, but not this day. Shrugging their shoulders, they responded with two excellent scores, the first by flanker Webster (conv. Ford) and the second by Ford himself, who narrowly missed converting his own try to take the visitors into the break a respectable 7-22 in their favour.

The second half proved a gritty affair, with both sides spending periods camped on each other’s lines without quite breaking through. Tempers were never far from fraying, and on two or three occasions the two teams stood at handbags drawn.

With Dinnington stretching the breakdown laws to the full, the Boys in Blue gave as good as they got, and in truth always looked the more dangerous, using their forwards to scrap their way up the pitch and their talented back line to run the home side ragged.

The coup de grace came in the final quarter when a protracted series of breakdowns drew in too many Dinnington bodies and Moss bludgeoned his way through a gap for the final score of the game – 7-27.

This was a full team effort by Newark Twos, who handled everything thrown at them by Dinnington in this well-fought and often edgy match, and hurled it back with interest. The heavy mob, reuniting Hempstead, Barton (a welcome return from college) and Himsworth were in imperious form, backed by the solid shoulders of Trigger and senior colt Ollie Coulsen, with the rapid response unit of Poulson, Webster and Godfrey causing mayhem all over the pitch. Great to see Rhys Overland back from injury and the return of Connor Slack – who had a fine game – and in truth, every single member of the fifteen can take credit for taking on a combative Dinnington side and coming out comfortably on top.

Very hard to pick a man of the match in these circumstances, but thankfully this is Captain Nick Moore’s job. Congratulations go to Alistair Moss for a great all-round performance.

MotM: Alistair Moss

Tries: Alistair Moss (2), Jonathan Webster (1), Patrick Ford (1)
Conversions: Patrick Ford (2)
Penalties: Patrick Ford (1)