A burst of points in the last five minutes!

REPORT WRITTEN BY ROB WILDMAN

Saturday, Feb 16

Midlands One East North

Newark 15 Paviors 14

Newark reserved their best for last in a another highly competitive Nottinghamshire derby between these sides fought out in dire conditions at Kelham Road.

A burst of points in the last five minutes brought Newark victory after Paviors had looked well set leading 14-5.

Newark’s 12th success of the campaign was spoiled by a bad leg injury for centre Matt Cox at the end of the first half which caused the match to be delayed.

Cox, who had only returned to action in the last month after suffering a wrist injury in the autumn, was hurt in a tackle and needed to be taken to hospital.

Newark had already been hampered by a knee injury to their other centre in Chris Tate who came back on to help out once Cox went off.

Substitute Max Spurr filled the other midfield spot in a line up which included Cameron Curry making his first league appearance in the back row.

Before Cox went off he had helped in putting Newark level after Paviors had led 5-0 early on through their only try.

Newark levelled thanks to an excellent move which was set up by Lewis Cove’s initial break. A fast pass from fly half James Offer released wing Nick Galinski who gave Aloesi Waqalevu the room to score near the right corner.

Offer narrowly missed the conversion and the sides turned round 5-5 after the game had been delayed by the injury to Cox.

Paviors took control after the break and made the better use of the conditions unlike Newark who failed to take their chance in the first 10 minutes.

Three penalty goals from Paviors eased the visitors into a 14-5 lead and they looked set for victory.

However, Newark, stirred up by the arrival of substitute Shaun May, struck back in a final quarter when both teams had a player sin binned for fighting.

May’s trademark barging runs gave Newark new impetus backed up by final effort from his fellow forwards.

The momentum led to Newark putting pressure on the Paviors’ line and it eventually brought reward when Galinski burst onto Mark Byrom’s pass to score near the post. Offer converted to narrow the deficit to 12-14.

Further pressure from Newark brought a match-winning penalty opportunity when the Paviors pack were penalised for offside.

And to the delight of the home crowd Offer landed the kick to complete a comeback which looked unlikely for most of the second half.

Newark have a weekend off next Saturday but could well play a midweek match on Tuesday or Wednesday week (Feb 25/26) against West Bridgford, in the Notts Cup. Both clubs to keen play and a firm date should be announced early this week.

Newark team v Paviors – Mark Byrom; Waqalevu, Tate, Cox, Galinski; Offer, Clark (capt); Dunning, Tomlinson, Tinsley, Tatham, Primett, Webster, Lewis Cove, Curry.

Subs: Barnsdale, May, Spurr.

Tries: Waqalevu, Galinski.

Con: Offer.

Penalty goal: Offer.

Sin bin: Tatham.

Scoring sequence – 0-5 Paviors try, 5-5 Waqalevu try, 5-8 Paviors pen, 5-11 Paviors pen, 5-14 Paviors pen, 10-14 Galinski try, 12-14 Offer con, 15-14 Offer pen.

Rob Wildman