Leicester Forest Vs Newark U16s - Colin Burbidge Memorial Cup, 22nd October 2022

Newark U16s travelled to Leicester Forest for the inaugural Cup Match in memory of Colin Burbidge, who was instrumental in the creation of Leicester Forest RFC, Colins Life and his great work for the club and the game of rugby was celebrated with a minute’s applause by both teams and supporters.

In surprisingly poor warm-up and with a couple of no-shows, Newark struggled to get the journey out of their legs and losing their fly-half in the warm-up necessitated a re-jig in the Backline, taking the positive this promised more game time for the 24 who had made the trip down to play on the immaculate 4G pitch.

Leicester Forest kicked off and immediately put pressure on Newark in front of their home crowd, and an error by Newark with an long overthrow at the 22m lineout was picked up and ran through by Leicester Forest causing Newark to concede a penalty on their 5m, which when quickly taken led to a try being scored under the posts, 5 minutes gone, 7–0 and a dream start for Leicester Forest.

Newark did not appear phased by the early try and immediately went on the offensive with a lineout on the Leicester Forest 22m which although lost, was immediately won back in the ensuing ruck, two further forward phases then saw the ball fed out to the backs who showed great hands and footwork ending with Toby H exploiting the overlap for the try, a fantastic conversion from Oscar M from an almost impossible angled tied the scores at 7–7.

The Newark pack were now dominating the scrums, yet Leicester Forest were winning the lineouts leading to a period of stalemate. The breakthrough came from a lineout just outside the Forest 22, Mateusz D sent the ball with pinpoint accuracy for Sam R to catch and setup the rolling maul, from which the Newark pack’s indomitable technique drove them forward to the Leicester Forest 5m and bursting from the back of the maul the move finished it started by Mateusz D bulldozing his way over the line to make it 7 – 12.

But Leicester Forest quickly got back ahead when a clearance kick from Newark fell straight into the hands of their dangerous #10, who powerfully ran it straight back to Newark, some poor tackling was finally corrected but not until he had fed the ball to a support runner, who with some great footwork and evasion, ran in for the try under the posts which converted made it 14–12.

Leicester Forest had their tails well and truly up and with the Newark lineout uncharacteristically spluttering, they began to take full advantage and their 3rd try came from a lineout in the Newark 22 which coupled with great handling and strength took the score to 19-12.

From a scrum just inside the Newark half, the home team shipped the ball out to their speedy winger and came close to putting clear daylight between themselves and Newark, with only a try saving tackle from a flying Toby H saving the day, which earned him some massive pats on the back from his teammates, recognising the importance of the save.

Some choice words re. teamwork and reflections at half-time saw Newark enter the second half trailing, but determined to up the team interplay and it didn’t take long to up the gears when from a dominant scrum and after numerous perfect rucking phases, Luke F burst through for the first score of the half, 19–17.

The visitors could smell blood and immediately were on the offensive again and some great play from Toby H, stepping and handing off various players saw him speed through for his second try under the posts, converted by Harry W, 19-24 and Newark’s noses were ahead again.

Newark now were really moving through the team gears and another bursting run from Mateusz D found Newark set up a ruck on the Leicester Forest try-line, the ball was swiftly moved through the backs and finally finding a lurking Luke F for his second, 19-29.

Leicester Forest were not giving up so easily and pressed the solid Newark line to try to claw their way back into the match, however their efforts were in vain as what is fast becoming his trademark, Toby H (the burglar) read and intercepted a Forest pass in his own 22 and immediately brought Newark out of their own half, running out of gas he kicked, chased, gathered and looked certain to score a memorable try until he was pulled down just short of the line.

However, Forest were deemed to have knocked it on in the re-gathering, resulting in a Newark scrum on the hosts 5m. Again, the Newark scrum was dominant and a well worked deception by Max B left the blindside open for the burst by Sam H and with it came his first try, conversion by Oscar M took the score to 19-36.

Leicester Forest continued to fight and were rewarded with a penalty in front of the posts that they elected to kick(!) to make it 22-36.
The visitors were again spurred into action and eventually a 5m attacking scrum gave Luke F, playing at #8 for the first time, his hat-trick and took the score to 22-41, putting Newark out of sight.

But still Forest weren’t finished and continued to play for pride as the clock eventually ran down, being rewarded from a lineout on the Newark 5m from which the ball ran loose and the hosts reacted first bursting through for the try and conversion to narrow the gap to 29- 41.
The final play was initiated from the restart, Elliot P caught and darted forward to the Leicester Forest 5m line with the Newark pack in support, the defence was then wrong footed by Oscar M for the final score of the match, which took it to 29- 46.

In a highly competitive, yet friendly match, the 24 Newark players who took to the pitch all played exceptionally well and none of them looked out of place making for a fantastic match for the travelling support and Newark U16’s first silverware of the season. and one in which we hope Colin would have been proud to have been associated with.
Many thanks to our kind hosts.

Written by Will Nicholson
Checked by David Hayle