Newent 43 Hereford 14
Hereford travelled to Newent, top of the league and unbeaten in eight games. They started well, but were unable to prevent the hosts making it nine. Hereford made most of the early running, but were unable to penetrate the home defence. Newent however, made the most of fewer chances to register a brace of first half tries. A Hereford try on half time took the Newent interval lead to 12 points to 7. In the second half Newent ran in four further tries to Hereford’s one and took the victory by 43 points to 14.
Head Coach, Scott Sturdy said “We started the game well, stringing together multiple phases in attack on numerous occasions, but unfortunately were unable to get over the line. Newent were very clinical and every time they visited our 22, they came away with points. Eventually this told, even though the game was very close into the second half. There are lessons for us, as a team to learn in terms of being clinical in attack and staying on the same page in defence. The game got away from us later, but the score doesn’t reflect the competitiveness or quality of the game. A difficult loss for us, the lads are disappointed and we’ll get together now this week and build ourselves up for the visit of Stratford next Saturday.”
“The 1870s bounced back from a difficult away game with Kenilworth to get a 38 – nil win over Tamworth. It’s lovely to see them playing some really good rugby and scoring great tries. I give a shout to our Lions team, who played their second game on Friday night, away against Luctonians 4ths. A really competitive game, the score was 17 – 5 and the Hereford lads applied themselves well on a difficult wet pitch. For a team that’s only played together twice they performed admirably, with lots of heart and skill on show. It bodes well for the club to get three teams out on a weekend for the second time this season. On Saturday we play Stratford at home, they are a team that like to play wide expansive rugby and we want to play a game full of flair, so it should be an exciting contest.”
Hereford started well, spending plenty of time in the Newent 22, but were unable to put points on the board. On the contrary, Newent spent much less time in Hereford territory and scored a couple of tries one of which was converted. Just before half time Hereford got onto the scoreboard with a set piece move from a scrum inside the Newent 22. Centre Mark Philo cut back inside his outside half and broke through a couple of tackles to drive over under the posts. Iwan Holder made the conversion to take the Newent lead to 12 points to 7.
The start of the second period continued in similar vein. Hereford were competing well, but found it difficult to score, whilst Newent added a converted try and a penalty goal to their tally. Eventually from a well-executed lineout, the maul rolled infield and over the line for Scott Robinson to dot down for a second Hereford try at the par 5, Iwan Holder slotted the conversion. As the game progressed, Hereford began to drop off some of their first up tackles and Newent added three further tries. Hereford though, did not lie down, they continued to compete and towards the end Robinson gathered a feed from a long lineout and crossed the Newent goal line, but the referee disallowed the try.
The 1870s held their second place in their league with a a good win over Tamworth 2s at Wyeside, by 38 points to nil. The scorers in today’s game were tries from Lewis Turner 2, Will McFarlane, Ben Hyde, Levi Hughes & Jurijs Kudrjavcevs, Jordon Sheehy added 4 conversions and Man of the Match was Levi Hughes.
