Newark’s Cup hopes ended in disappointment

RFU Intermediate Cup – second round
Old Laurentians 25
Newark 13

Newark’s Cup hopes ended in disappointment despite an excellent start in the second round tie at Rugby-based Old Laurentians.

An early penalty from fly half Danny Coen plus a conversion of a try by Buddha Waqalevu put Newark 10-0 clear after 13 minutes.

However, Newark failed to press home the advantage in the second quarter of the first half and also sustained injuries to lock Fred Tatham and scrum-half Matt Clarke.

The home team regained their composure and kicked every penalty opportunity they received to cut the deficit to 10-9 at the interval.

A second penalty from Coen increased Newark’s lead to 13-9 but another two penalties allowed the Rugby team to edge ahead at 15-13 through two more kicks.

The home team eventually grabbed the lead through a try after a scramble near to the Newark line.

That score was converted and a final penalty from their fly half put the home team 25-13 in the clear.

Newark were not helped by those injuries and had to reshuffle their midfield when Clarke went off moving Coen to scrum-half and using substitute Matt Cox at fly half.

Freddie Tatham replaced the injured Primett while Darren Gray made another second-half appearance at prop for Shaun May.

Overall, Newark did not do press home their advantage when in command. They also gave away too many penalties (25-15) and had Alex Moore sin binned in the second half. Old Laurentians also had a player yellow-carded early in the first half.

Team: Tate; Waqalevu, Moore, Sibilski, Britten; D Coen, Clarke; May, Tomlinson, J Barnsdale, Evans, Primett, Webster, L Cove, C Coen. Subs: Gray, Tatham, Cox.
Try: Waqalevu. Con: D Coen. Pens: D Coen (2).
Sin bin: Moore

Rob Wildman