It wasn’t a one man show

Newark 3s V Castle Donington

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Lost 26-27

Trys: Briggs-Price, Willis 3

Cons: Willis 3

To lose a game by a point is very annoying but to help out your opponents, have one of our players score a try for them and then have their captain complaining about the penalty count does rather get your back up. That said it wasn’t a fractious game with many flare ups and it was our own fault for not putting enough points on the board when we had the telling wind behind us in the first half.

Our first try was from Zak Briggs-Price, playing out of position in the centres, who crashed through under the posts from not to far out. Sam Willis provided the extra points and then set about getting over the try line himself. The big no8 was picking and going all game and doesn’t score an easy try as they’re generally from a good way out. His first was no exception despite a lot of defending tacklers trying to stop him but he powered his way over the line. He made the conversion but it was now time for our opponents to get going.

They had a big pack and from the off it was apparent they would use it to make ground up the pitch. They were picking up and crashing through at every opportunity and this paid dividends with a first half try that they couldn’t convert. We scored again when Sam Willis went on another storming run and soon crossed the try line for a try he converted himself. Donnington scored again before half time making it 21-10 at the break.

We had our tails up and wanted to continue in the same way for the second half but our opponents had other ideas. They opened the second half scoring following some poor defense on our part but it was Sam Willis who stole the headlines with his hatrick try with a run from our half. Sadly he failed to convert it and with Donington getting two trys and a conversion in the last 20 minutes what should have been a victory drink in the bar turned into a debate of what could have been.

Only 1 point from a possible 4 is disappointing but it was a good performance from a third team that was mostly players from the fourth team. It wasn’t a one man show either while Sam got the majority of the points he couldn’t have done it without the help of the rest of the squad. John Burton put a good shift in and Liam Saxby was everywhere. A rare appearance from Ross Verrills in the centres had him unlucky not to score on a couple of occasions while full back Josh Clack probably saved quite a few points with some last line tackles.

Big thanks have to go to Aaron Pownall, Craig Fisher, Matt Waude and DOTD Adam Squires for helping out our opponents at various different times in the match.