Newbury U13A 12- Reading Abbey U13A 5

After a tough babtism in their first season of league rugby (Newbury had previously lost to Bracknell to a try scored in injury time and were just outscored by league leaders Maidenhead in a 12 try thriller) Newbury U13 As deservedly got their first league win against the unbeaten Abbey side.

The game kicked off and the March snow fell from the sky which called for a lot of character from both sides just to complete the game in the extreme cold.

Newbury got the better of the opening exchanges, with Luke Parkes and Alex Forsythe making a couple of early tackles to turnover the ball and allow Peter Healy and Callum on the Newbury wings to make good inroads into the Abbey half. The Abbey forwards won the early ball in the scrums which prevented any momentum being built up. However, the Newbury hooker, Luke Higgs, together with his comrades in the front row Tom Pugh and Alex Zenda, made a few minor changes to their positions in the scrum and were soon a match of their peers.

Newbury took the lead when Rory McNeil picked up in the loose and drove on from 30 metres from the Abbey tryline , the ball was moved out to Connor Burns who stepped inside his opposite number in the centre and crashed through two more defenders to claim the try. Ollie Hassel-Collins added the 2 points for the conversion with an excellent kick from mid way-between the touchline and posts.

Newbury continued to play good rugby and moved the ball wide at every opportunity. Fly Half James McFazden made a number of incisive breaks which allowed centres Burns and Hassell-Collins to make some strong runs down the middle which were defended well by Abbey to keep the score to 7-0 at half time.

Abbey came out after the break with a renewed sense of urgency and were soon doing most of the attacking which called for a number of good tackles to be made by the Newbury Full Back, Seb Carruzo, to keep Abbey at bay.

The defences were finally breached when a fine kick to the corner from the Abbey fly half was gathered on the bounce by the Abbey right wing who slid over in the corner. A difficult conversion drifted wide and Newbury led by 7 points to 5 .

After the try Newbury took the upper hand and a fine break from the scrum by David Telling on half way allowed Adam Harris to take the ball deep into the Abbey half. The ball was swiftly moved along the line but a fine tackle in midfield caused the ball to be coughed up and a scrum was awarded to Abbey 10 metres from the Abbey line.T he Newbury forwards put the Abbey scrum under pressure and the Abbey scrum half was stripped of the ball by Newbury scrum half Alex Sparkes who carried the Abbey full back over the line before touching down for try.

Newbury stepped up their pressure in the final 10 minutes buoyed by the introduction of substitutes Jonah Rossiter and Steven Ansell and despite a lot of possession could not add to the lead which made it tense until the final play when the ball was hoofed out of play.

Newbury played expansive open rugby in awful weather and were great value for their result on the day.

Man of the Match was Luke Parkes who thwarted a number of moves by the Abbey back row with his chop tackles.