NEWARK RUE MISSED CHANCES!

REPORT WRITTEN BY DAVID GODFREY

In a patchy but well-fought contest between two Notts rivals, the rearranged pennant match between Newark and Paviors was a game which treated spectators to some good rugby from both sides and for Newark fans at least a sense that there’s more to come from this squad, despite a hefty margin against them on the day.

For once, the visiting side had managed to pull together a competitive scrum, a full back line and even two subs - something of a miracle in these lean times.

First blood went to Pavs after 15minutes despite some good scrummaging from Newark. After one of several strikes against the head by the excellent Newark hooker, the ever-feisty Barnsdale charged from the base of the scrum but got held up in the resulting maul leaving Pavs with the put in at the ensuing scrum. For once they got some quick ball, put it down the line and broke through to score - 7-0.

Newark struck back 10 minutes later after stealing the ball from a rumbling Pavs maul and popping it up to Josh ‘The Hair’ Duggan who charged up the field with pavs players bouncing off him. 3 phases later, the ball found its way into the hands of Nick ‘Juggler’ Moore who sashayed his way round several Pavs players before going to ground 5m from their line. This was enough for the long arm of Rory Williams who barrelled through to the line and managed to reach out and touch the ball down from under a pile of Pavs bodies - 7-7.

Pavs weren’t going to take this lying down and scored twice in quick succession, once from a driving maul following a line out from a Newark penalty and then almost immediately afterwards after some lackadaisical Newark tackling following the restart - 21-7.

The half finished with a late riposte from the energetic Sam Hickory with a great run up into Pav’s 22, handing the ball off to Barnsdale who bashed his way through between the posts - 21-14 going into the break.

The second half started disappointingly for Newark with a well worked move by Pavs through the middle to score in the corner to take the score to 26-14. The best period for Newark started shortly after when Pavs were carded following a late tackle and the visitors used the opportunity to camp on the opposition’s try line. Unfortunately, white line fever cut in, overlaps on both sides were missed and Newark went away from it with nothing to show after being penalised for holding on.

The rest of the half was a tale of Newark missing its chances and Paviors making the most of theirs, with a further 3 tries by the home side taking the final score to 43-14. To their credit, Newark’s heads never went down and there were some fine individual performances, not least from the half-back pairing of Seabrooke and Dobson, who grew in confidence as the game progressed despite both being new to the roles, and from McKenna who managed to stop at least two Pav’s scores with some courageous tackling. By no means a perfect performance technically by Newark, but we showed real spirit, played some good rugby and if we can just get some consistency in the squad turning up, this will only get better.

Man of the Match: Sam Dobson

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