Lichfield vs Under 12s - 11th November 2007
Remembrance Sunday saw the Under 12s travel to Lichfield for their first away fixture of the season. With a few regulars missing to take part in Remembrance Day parades the sixteen available players knew they'd have their work cut out in a three period, 45 minute contest.
After a warm-up, the match was preceded by a minute's silence at 11:00 observed by both teams and spectators.
A couple of minutes to get organised, then the kick-off. Newport started well, despite an untried front-row in the first period, with the backs eager to try their skills on the widest pitch encountered so far.
Unfortunately, despite the early promise, it was Lichfield who opened the scoring. With Newport slow to apply pressue, the Lichfield three-quarters used their pace to excellent effect slicing through Newport's defence to score the first try.
7 - 0
Newport seemed to lose heart at conceding a try after a promising start - again they gave the Lichfield backs too much time on the ball. Another precise attack at pace, with a couple of missed tackles, saw Lichfield go over for their second try.
14 - 0
The Newport coaches praised their team for some excellent rugby, despite being 14 points down, but emphasised the need to put Lichfield under pressure and not give them the space to play.
The message seemed to get through as Newport began closing down their opposite numbers before they had a chance to use their speed. Some excellent rucking by the Newport forwards produced quick ball in the opposition half and Alex Mayer made a break. The Lichfield defence were quick to cover across but, with plenty of support outside, Alex made to pass and saw the defence drift wide leaving just enough space for him to touch down for Newport's only try.
14 - 7
Lichfield came back with conserted pressure. Near their own try line the Newport forwards provided scrappy ball for the half backs - in the resulting confusion Newport gifted Lichfield a third try .
19 - 7
That was to be the final score of the match. There were half breaks by either side but from then on both teams worked extremely hard in defence and made it difficult for each other to shine.
Newport made one or two breaks but either the ball from the breakdown was too slow, or the wrong line was taken, or, as in the previous fixture against Whitchurch, the wrong decisions were made at key moments - having done the hard work they allowed the excellent Lichfield defence just enough time to reorganise and the opportunities were gone.
Despite the loss the Newport players should be very pleased with their performance - they showed good skills all across the park, there were some pleasing debuts for new players and at times they stretched a very talented and well organised Lichfield side. There was some excellent rugby played by both teams which bodes well for the return fixture at the Old Showground next month.
Next week we host Shrewsbury - which promises to be another excellent fixture.