Saturday was one of those games which could have gone either way. If the game had lasted five minutes longer Witney may well have won, ten minutes longer Blues may have won. As it was a late penalty given away by the home side enabled Blues to set up an attacking position to score the try to tie the game and the successful conversion to come away with all five points. A game with fourteen tries, seven apiece, is one of those that coaches would prefer not to happen and this one was back and forth for the full eighty minutes with very few points separating the teams throughout the match. There was also a frustration at the number of penalties given away by both teams around the half way line and Blues would have been disappointed with their lineout in the first half, although the windy conditions were always going to make this phase of the game difficult to control. Before the Blues game there was a curtain raiser with Blues walking rugby team playing their inaugural match against Witney Wizards. It's a strange thing that in a lot of walking rugby games nobody seems to keep score, except that we did and we won and now stand proudly as a team with a 100% success rate. Played one, won one! All the walkers were grateful to Blues players for coming out to give us a shout before heading off to do their warm up. Thanks boys.

And they certainly needed to warm up as the hail began to fall, it seemed almost horizontally at times. Thankfully the weather had cleared up by kick off although the strong wind made it difficult, particularly in securing clean line out possession. James McAvoy was pleased with the win but felt defensively the boys were not quite at the same level as the previous week but that, " winning and knowing how to win becomes a habit and the group are calm and believe they can score in a number of different ways." James goes on to say that the challenge for the group now is to, "look at ways to be able to back up performances in a row." As a team, what a position to be in, to be in the realms of discussing backing up fantastic performances and to be critical of a win that saw the team score seven tries. That demonstrates the high level of self expectation within the team and is a reflection of how Blues has progressed as the season has unfolded. Fifth place in the league now secured and a play off beckons, probably away against Chippenham. James is proud of the players who are now part of the top of the table group and."we look forward to testing our bravery and away record," whoever we come up against in the playoffs.

Scrum halves playing on the wing. The last time I can remember this happening was in a world cup pool match, England v Wales at Twickenham in 2015. The Welsh scrum half that day who played on the wing because of injuries was crucial in helping the visitors win that match and on Saturday at Witney, Beau Power and Sidney Adams, scrum halves but playing on the wing were instrumental in helping Blues succeed. In tricky conditions they did well in the back field and Beau did well in attack finishing his two tries brilliantly and being named player of the match.

A pinpoint kick off by Dan Thorne immediately put Witney under pressure. This was followed by a great attacking line chosen by Christian Collett. However Witney won a penalty, kicked to the corner and their forwards mauled the ball over Blues line for the first try of the afternoon. The successful conversion put Blues 7-0 down five minutes into the game. Blues came back strongly winning a scrum penalty, playing some good phases before Toby Thorne put Jamie Futcher into space to score the first of his two tries of the afternoon to bring the score back to 7-5. The call from the side now was to, "find double positive actions." And that is exactly what happened. A fantastic 50/22 by Dan Thorne gave Blues an attacking lineout five metres out and the forwards mauled their way to the line for Sam Bramhall to touch down. Dan Thorne's conversion put Blues ahead for the first time at 12-7 on fifteen minutes. Witney were the next to strike and on twenty minutes Blues lost a line out. The home side worked the ball wide and scored their second try of the match to take them ahead by two points 14-12. The way the see saw nature of the match was going it was no surprise Blues scored next. It started with Beau Power making a strong run deep into the Witney half. The move was carried on by Toby Thorne who switched the play to feed Jamie Futcher who ran in for his second try of the match. The conversion by Dan Thorne put Blues in the lead 19-14. Blues now found themselves under some pressure but a great clearing penalty kick to touch by Chris Laidler relieved the pressure momentarily only for Witney to go on the attack again and on the stroke of half time they crossed for their third try after a couple of missed tackles. It seemed fitting the half time score was 19 all with both sides going into the break likely chatting about how to minimise the penalty count in the second half.

The second half started with Blues conceding a penalty and the hosts would have been in a strong position had it not been for a great Joe Davis tackle. However an attacking lineout for Witney enabled them to drive over for their bonus point try and to take the lead at 24-19. Almost immediately Blues hit back. Dan Thorne and Jamie Futcher decided to run the ball out of defence to feed Beau Power who showed a great turn of speed to outflank the Witney defence and run in from just inside the Witney half to score his first try of the game and to bring Blues back to 24 all. Scrums are something else. Up until this point Blues scrum had been solid but in the space of three or four minutes, Witney produced two scrums which pushed Blues back, the second of which resulted in a try for the hosts to take the score to 29-24 to the home side. Watching on it is almost impossible to try and explain this, particularly as Blues won a scrum penalty of their own at the next scrum. Within five minutes Blues were back level. A very well executed lineout drill resulted in Chris Laidler crashing over for Blues fifth try of the game. The pattern of one side scoring and then the other was broken as Blues doubled up on their previous effort when Jamie Futcher made a break out of defence to feed Beau Power who ran in for his second try of the match. The conversion by Dan Thorne gave Blues a seven point lead going into the final fifteen minutes of the game. But there was a feeling the game still had a long way to go particularly as Witney came back strongly to secure an attacking lineout and rumble over to bring the score back to 36-34 to Blues. And then like Blues a few minutes earlier, Witney doubled up on their previous try to take the lead at 41-36 going into the final couple of minutes of the game. The hosts gave away a penalty around half way and Blues set up an attacking lineout for one final push. Accuracy after eighty minutes of a game of rugby is sometimes not easy to achieve and it is to the credit of this Blues team that their decision making right at the end proved crucial, testimony to the fitness levels of the team. Clive Woodward always uses the acronym TCUP, "thinking clearly under pressure," and the final play of the game saw this in action when Chris Laidler crashed over to bring the scores back level. Cue Blues celebrations but hang on, we all know what happened when Tommy Freeman and Henry Pollock celebrated a few minutes too early in the last Six Nations match last month in France. Dan Thorne still had to kick the conversion to win the game. The wind was still pretty fierce and in those conditions with the match on the line there is no easy kick. As composed as ever Dan slotted the conversion much to the delight of Blues supporters and to the dismay of the Witney contingent. Final whistle, Witney 41, Blues 43.

Good teams do it all the time, win in spite of not having played to their potential and well done to all squad members for giving 100% again for Blues. Travis Boulton made his debut on the bench and although he did not have the opportunity to come on, he has shown he is a quality player, having put in some very good performances for Stags this season and having caused Blues some challenges when he played against us for Wootten Bassett earlier in the season. Travis is one to watch out for and it is likely this young number 10 will have his chance playing for Blues at some point in the not too distant future. Ted Dyer too was named on the bench but like Travis did not come on. Disappointing though this is, Ted's and Travis' positive attitude in supporting those on the pitch is to be commended and says a lot about them as individuals.

Many thanks to our loyal supporters who made the journey to watch Blues penultimate league match of the season. Thanks also to our hosts Witney, their players, coaches, managers, catering team and supporters who made us feel welcome and to the referee for taking charge of the game. As always there were a couple of decisions that could have gone either way and when both sets of supporters are calling for different outcomes from the same passage of play, be it a scrum, ruck or whatever, it is not easy for referees and the final penalty which tilted the game Blues way was greeted with not a great deal of enthusiasm from the home players. But how great to see the home team acting with grace towards the referee after the game in the clubhouse in spite of their obvious displeasure at his final decision. We all talk about rugby values and there they were in action at Witney on Saturday and I guess in action at many rugby grounds, as always, throughout the country both at elite and community level.

Next Friday it's the annual memorial match against Hungerford and then onto Longlevens on 11th April for our final league game. Seems only like yesterday when we entertained Longlevens in the opening match of the season. Blues lost that one 31-36 so will be looking to recapture the form they showed against Cleve a couple of weeks ago. It is never easy playing against a team based in Gloucester and Blues will be hoping for as much support as possible to cheer them on.

Happy Easter to one and all.

Big thanks to all our Player Sponsors and our Club Sponsors, your support is much appreciated

Big thanks to our fantastic supporters, the team really appreciate your support, and hope you enjoyed the day

Big thanks to our match day photographer Peter Branch whose photos can be found on Facebook
Newbury RFC Seniors Supporters Photography Page
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063526195463

Also big thanks to our match day photographer Ian Jack whose photos are on the Pitchero website
https://www.newburyrugby.co.uk/photos

Big thanks to Kennet Radio for their support, https://kennetradio.com/category/sport/

Finally a big thanks to the NWN for their match reports and support much appreciated https://www.newburytoday.co.uk/sport/rugby/