NCC Plate 4th Round

Newbury entertained Weston Super Mare in the 4th round of the NCC Plate competition
Weston Super Mare kicked off and immediately put Newbury under pressure forcing them to give away a penalty which was successfully kicked, 0-3 to Weston with the game only 3 minutes old.
Newbury didn’t let this affect them and on 10mins were unlucky not to score when Josh Winfield had the ball ripped from his grasp just as he crossed the line. On 15 minutes Newbury again gave away a penalty on their 22 allowing Weston to double their lead to 0-6. The rest of the half was dominated by both sides defence which remained strong and produced some great tackles nullifying any scoring chances. Newbury closed out the first half camped on the Weston line but after several phases of play and a couple of penalties couldn’t breach the Weston defence, Ean Kershaw getting closest to scoring when he was stopped a metre short.
Newbury started the second half the better and with the half only 4 minutes old a great run by Alex Huntsman who passed inside for Joe Leadley to weave his way past several tackles only to be stopped by Weston’s full back a few metres out, the Newbury forwards were quickly there to recycle the ball out to the backs for winger Alex Huntsman to score wide out on the left, Richard West narrowly missing the conversion. Weston had the better of the play for the next 10 minutes and forced Newbury to concede two penalties which they elected to kick from approx 40 metres, luckily both sailed past the posts. Newbury came back into the game and were unlucky not to score when Jack Rossiter made a great tackle on the half way line and won the ball, the ball was spun through several hands before Alex Huntsman set off on a cross field run which ended with him being tacked and bundled into touch over the corner flag. Weston also spurned a great scoring chance when having opened up the Newbury defence they knocked on. Weston kept up the pressure and were only denied scoring by some great Newbury defence. During this rearguard action Newbury conceded a penalty which earned a team yellow for Tom Simm for going off his feet at the ruck. Weston elected to run the ball but again couldn’t break through the Newbury defence eventually losing possession.
Newbury played their way out of defence with a darting run from Sean Chamunorwa and with a few minutes of attacking play had forced Weston to concede a penalty which Richard West slotted over 8-6 65 minutes. Newbury had the better of the game now and with Tom Simm back on put Weston under enough pressure for them to concede another penalty in front of the posts which Richard West kicked to make the score 11-6 on 75 minutes. The last five minutes of the game was played out with neither side looking like they would break through some great defensive rugby.

This game was a fair and hard fought closely matched cup encounter which was a credit to both squads especially their defensive play.

A great squad performance

Players Man of the Match was Alex Huntsman

Coaches Man of the Match was Harry Fisher

Newbury now entertain Dursley in the 5th round on Sunday March 4th 2pm ko

Squad
Ben Hicks, Jack Steffan, Jonathan Stancombe, Josh Winfield,
Tom King, Harry Fisher, Ean Kershaw, Tom Simm, Tom Lauder,
Richard West, Jack Rossiter, James Macaulay, Sam Guttridge,
Alex Huntsman, Joe Leadley, Alex Harris, Jake Newton,
Matt Childs, Sean Chamunorwa, Cameron Mercer, Michael Lintin,