With yet another away fixture in the North Mids the Under 14s made the journey to Bromsgrove with what seemed on paper to be a strong squad - however, by kick-off the intended 19 were down to 16 due to sickness, a knee injury and mechanical breakdown (a car, not a player !).

 

A frantic opening five minutes with strong play from both sides unfortunately saw Ross McGinn, the Newport fly-half, injured taking a bang to the head whilst making a crunching tackle - and being replaced by Kieran Boyle, our only sub.

 

Captain, Joe Furlong, did a bit of re-organising, Kieran moving to flanker, Mark Richards moving in to the backs, Ben Scarisbrick moving to scrum half and Joe taking on the no. 10 spot - and we looked in good shape to carry on. After another fiercely competitive five minutes centre Matt Price sustained a neck injury during some thundering defence and he too had to leave the field.

 

Newport were now down to 14 men and against a big, well organised Bromsgrove side this did not bode well. However, the loss seemed to galvanise the Newport players and they continued to compete in all areas of the game.

 

Some quick thinking by the Newport backs, a kick ahead, the ball recovered and some excellent support play saw Newport awared a penalty deep in the Bromsgrove 22 -  from which Jack Harris drove over the line and Joe converted from near the touchline to give Newport a 7 - 0 lead at half time.

 

An excellent first half performance but now Newport would have to play up the slope !

 

The Newport team worked very hard, competing well against a much bigger pack and closing down the Bromsgrove back line. Newport were fortunate on a number of occasions when Bromsgrove's pack won good ball and they tried to spin it wide to take advantage of the extra man - passes were a little to slow or lines of running a little too wide and the Newport defence managed to drift across and cut out the danger. However, Newport were having to work very hard and when one loose ball was hacked through Bromsgrove managed a finger-tip try just before the ball bounced out of play. A difficult conversion was narrowly missed and a 7-5 scoreline going in the final quarter of the match meant we were set for a tense finish.

 

The home side's pack looked to use their size advantage and came very close to scoring only to be held up over the line. Both sides tried to make good use of their kicking game and the Newport backs chased tirelessly looking for an opportunity for a second score but the Bromsgrove defence kept their shape well.

 

With a little over 5 minutes to go the Bromsgrove forwards drove on well down the middle and, after seemingly being halted a number of times, successfully kept the ball alive and went over for a try close the posts which was duly converted - 12-7 to the home side.

 

The commitment from both teams continued right to the final whistle but without further score.

 

The Newport players should be very pleased with how they played today - the effort and support play from every single one of the forwards was superb - the defense and the chasing by the back line was excellent - Ben did a great job stepping in to scrum half and Joe, in addition to his contribution at fly half, led the team by example generating the right attitude and approach from his players.

 

I take more pleasure from this defeat than from the 50 points we put past Sutton Coldfield - you've made your coaches proud - Well done !