Unique Double Fixture. Away @ Notts Casuals and Home v. Stamford

Impressive displays from all three squads during a unique double header versus Stamford and Notts Casuals

Our Yellow squad travelling to their 1st fixture this season away to Notts Casuals and both the Red and Blue squads playing late arranged games against two large and competent Stamford sides at Kelham road.

Notts Casual v Nwk Yellows;

It was an Icy morning at Notts Casuals for the Yellow Squad in their first game of the season, in fact it was the first competitive game for Jonah, Alfie, Lewis and Josh A, combined with the experience of Blake, Tom, Harry and Calum. The sides’ game inexperience showed in the opening quarter as they were overawed by a Casuals side who punished Newark's soft tackles and the Yellows struggled to keep the ball.

The second period saw the team grow in confidence and the performance reflected that. With a more organised defence and strong attacking runs from Alfie and Blake starting to cause problems for Casuals, good progress was shown in the quarter.

The improvement continued into the 2nd half. Although Newark still struggled with the 1:1 tackles on Casuals two big ball carriers, in all other areas of the game Newark were now getting the better of their more experienced opponents, indeed all Newark lads were now wanting to carry the ball. Superb running from Jonah and Harry created the opportunity for Tom to score in the third quarter.

Having improved throughout, the lads were set the challenge of winning the final quarter, a challenged they stepped up to admirably. Casuals pressured the Newark try-line but massively improved tackling, especially from Josh, saw Newark deny them a try and turn the ball over with superb Rucking from Calum and Lewis. Winning that turnover was as important as scoring, what followed was a continuous period of possession with crisp passing, offloads and rucking which saw Newark go from their own line and work all the way up the pitch for Jonah to score, with all players handling the ball. Without doubt the best play of the match.

Man-of-Steel was awarded by his team mates to Blake for relentless ball carrying, making the hard yards and physical defence, he was run close by Alfie too! Really well done to all the lads on a first match together as a squad, they should be very proud.

Nwk Reds v Stamford;

On a very cold calm Sunday morning at Newark the Red squad comprising of Luke, Oscar, Elliot, Noah, Alexander, Joe R, Matthew W, Joe D, Jack and Henry M played two matches against Stamford. The first match started slow with both teams struggling to play the fast flowing rugby we have been teaching. The boys displayed the art of how to make tackling difficult by using incorrect or non-existent technique but eventually managed to get the opponents to the floor. It was another display of good rucking and positional play. A good evenly matched first game.

After a few very cold minutes of reflection and even stronger game ensued. Stamford came out of the blocks stronger and broke through the Newark lines on a couple of occasions. The boys managed to rally and with some good support play and dogged determination they managed to get over the line a couple of times.

Nwk Blues v Stamford;

The Blue squad comprised of Henry B, Ted, James, Alex G, Matthew G, Harley, Reuben, Joshi, Dom and with Liti making her debut appearance for Newark in a competitive game slotting in nicely. Newark started slowly with a handful of missed tackles resulting in early Stamford tries but once the team started to settle and playing the game plan, they showed some good hard straight running and movement of the ball into space resulting in a number of excellent tries involving multiple phases and passages of play. The blues continually put Stamford under pressure, competing for the ball furiously at the breakdown but lost their defensive shape enabling a couple of breakaway tries. An excellent hard contested free flowing game by two evenly matched sides.

Matches give coaches a great opportunity to see if what has been learned during practicing can be applied in a game - and also where more work is needed. The Reds second game highlighted that while great progress has been made in rucking and mauling we need to re-visit core tackling skills. Too often we were attempting to tackle with hands rather than shoulders and failing to get low. The result being we often took two, three or more attempts to break Stamford's attacking momentum. Going forward it was a different story with some great individual runs as well as good movement of the ball.

Given injuries and unavailability the limited number of players in all three squads showed great character against two strong and large numbered Stamford sides and a capable Notts Casuals age group.

An excellent all round effort from all that pulled on the blue and white Newark shirt representing the Club and U10 age group.

Training as usual next weekend. Expect tackling to be the core of next week's training plan!

Written by: Richard Marshall, Andy Rush & Ian Gooden
Verified by: Alan Staines