26/12 Team to face Bedford
December 26, 2008
Newbury Blues V Bedford
3pm Kick off
1. Nathan Catt
2. Paul Fincken (c)
3. Paulicia Ion
4. Ien Ascroftleigh
5. Brad Mockford
6. Chevy Pennycook
7. Sean Fox
8. Adrian Griffiths
9. Ben Stevenson
10. Gareth Griffiths
11. Rhys Crane
12. Nick Scott
13. Luke Burns
14. Andrew Henderson
15. Johnny Hylton
16. Tom Fiddler
17. Callum McGregor
18. Scott Witcombe
19. Ross Noonan
20. Waylon Gasson
21. Marc Sweeney
22. Martin Nutt
21/12 U17’s Beat Maidenhead in Top of the Table Clash
December 21, 2008
Newbury U17s vs. Maidenhead U17’s OBB U17’s League - Div 1 (21/12/08)
Newbury completed the first phase of their OBB Div1 league campaign with a home fixture against Maidenhead at a very windy Monks Lane on Sunday. Newbury were without 2 front-row regulars and two centers, but such is the strength in depth of this squad that the touchline fans were confident it would make little difference to their early Christmas present.
Newbury started strongly with the wind at their backs, and on 3 minutes, the forwards won good ball, which they spread along the line. Chris Lawrence did well to hang on to it after a juggling act, and moved it wide to Darren Smith, who powered through 30 metres to score under the posts. George Rossiter was as reliable as ever with the conversion.
3 minutes later it was nearly two as Newbury’s superior scrum won a penalty on their own 10-metre line. Michael Hobbs took it quickly and ran all the way into Maidenheads 22, where his pass did not quite go into James Monger’s hands. Another good chance came on 10 minutes, which in the blustery wind resulted in a Newbury forward pass in the Maidenhead 22. But Newbury took the ensuing scrum against the head, and Hobbs picked up from the back and drove through the despairing tacklers to score.
On 20 minutes, James Monger found a great line and although he was just stopped, a Newbury penalty was the result, which Rossiter kicked for a lineout, 7 metres out. The catch was clean, Hobbs and Guttridge both drove it closer to the Maidenhead line but the score would not come.
On 27 minutes Mr. Reliable George Rossiter accepted an easy penalty chance for 17-0. But at this point of the game that score line was poor reward for their pressure. Totally dominant in the set scrums and the line outs, Newbury’s back line ran the ball inventively, none more so than Chris Lawrence who had a barnstormer of a game, but scores were hard to come by.
At half time, against this massive wind and with no further score coming Newbury surely faced a huge task just to hang on. The loss of Michael Hobbs with an injury surely would not help, but a reliable deputy in Tom Clark was on hand. Sure enough, on 4 minutes Maidenhead drove and drove again to secure their first try (17-5).
On 10 minutes, Maidenhead won a scrum 5 metres out. Newbury won it against the head twice, but each time it was reset as it went to ground, Third time Maidenhead won it, but Josh Bartlett (also having a storming game) disrupted the scrum half brilliantly to halt the scoring opportunity.
Although Maidenhead had all the territory, Newbury kept them at bay quite comfortably, so it came as a shock when, with 15 minutes left, Newbury were guilty of over-complicating things in trying to run the ball out of defense, and a stray pass let Maidenhead through for a (converted) try. Thus at 17-12 the away side were now totally back in this game.
Newbury’s response was to work the ball forwards through their pack, and keeping it tight through 15 or more phases set up Tom Clark to score in the corner. Although the conversion was too much to ask, even of Rossiter, 22-12 now gave them breathing space. Newbury now used all their fresh legs and as we have noted before the changes failed to upset the rhythm of the team.
After the game, the victorious team emerged from the changing rooms magnificently dressed (Tom Clark though proved himself to be better with “tries” than “ties”) with manager Mick Futcher the smartest of them all.
After the Xmas break, the top four teams in the league go on to play the “reverse” fixtures, carrying over the points they have already earned. So Newbury approach the restart with a magnificent 5-point lead over the chasing pack.
Newbury Under 17s Squad: Guttridge, Sanders(Martin), Caunt(Gibson); Sherratt(Tarquini), Dyer(Craigen); West, Hobbs(T.Clark), Spanswick; Bartlett(Thorne), Rossiter; Monger, Lawrence, D.Clarke, Smith(Futcher); Mcintyre
19/12 Blues get some more gas!
December 19, 2008
Rhys Crane
We are delighted to announce the signing of Rhys Crane on a dual registration from Bath.
Twenty-two year old Rhys Crane joined Bath Rugby after completing a degree in sports and exercise science at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff.
A relative unknown, Crane is a product of Old Swinford Hospital School and Dudley Kingswinford RFC. He is currently a member of the greater England Sevens squad and already has experience playing for Bath United in the Guinness A league.
His addition to the Newbury back line is welcome after the unfortunate injuries this season to Spencer Wakeling and more recently Matthew Williams. Rhys has real pace and is tipped for a full time spot in the Bath line-up in seasons to come. He is obviously rated by former Newbury coach and now England Seven coach Ben Ryan and is one to keep an eye on for the future.
Rhys is named on the bench for this weekend. Get to Moseley and see the future!!
19/12 Team to face Moseley
December 19, 2008
Moseley v Newbury Blues
3pm Kick off
1. Nathan Catt
2. Joe Clarke
3. Paulicia Ion
4. Adrian Griffiths
5. Brad Mockford
6. Mark Lee
7. Jack Bentall
8. Chevy Pennycook
9. Ben Stevenson
10. Gareth Griffiths
11. Nick Scott
12. Marc Sweeney
13. Luke Burns
14. Andrew Henderson
15. Johnny Hylton
16. Rob Green
17. Paul Fincken
18. Ien Ascroftleigh
19. Ross Noonan
20. Waylon Gasson
21. Paul Gittens
22. Rhys Crane
18/12 Shop with NRFC!
December 18, 2008
All,
Our great new fundraiser is improving daily. Check it out here
You can shop for Christmas still with lots of retailers. Also check out travel options for New Year travel bookings and much more. We are adding new shops all the time so please do your shopping via us. This will cost you no extra. You can see our totaliser so you will see how much we are raising just by you clicking through us.
http://www.newburyrfc.co.uk/wp/the-club/shop-with-nrfc/
Many thanks to all those that have used the service so far. Pass it on.
17/12 U17’s win at Bletchley
December 17, 2008
Bletchley U17’s vs. Newbury U17’s OBB League Div 1 - (14/12/2008)
Table-topping Newbury made the long trip to Bletchley knowing that the expected win would set up a top of the table clash with Maidenhead on Sunday 21st Dec at NRFC KO 2PM.
Rossiter’s kick-off was low and hard, and Tom Sanders chasing through took a catch that Paul Collingwood would have envied. Sanders off-loaded to Caunt, Hobbs took the ball from the back of the maul and for a moment a first-minute try looked likely. Bletchley stopped the move but illegally and George Rossiter’s kick narrowly missed.
Buoyed by this start Newbury were all over Bletchley for the first 5 minutes but couldn’t turn it into points. Then Bletchley clawed their way back and on 9 minutes their fly half produced an inch-perfect cross-kick to the winger and he eluded the Newbury defence to score in the corner. Three-minutes later a Bletchley charge-down would have produced a second try had it not been for the ball running out of the tiny in-goal area.
This game might have survived the waterlogging which caused the postponement of yesterday’s Newbury first-team game, but the conditions were far from ideal, and on a skating rink of a surface both sides struggled to stay on their feet or hold on to the ball. For 25 minutes Bletchley looked like they might prevail, but gradually Newbury’s pack asserted their authority and eventually put in a series of pick-and-go thrusts. Michael Hobbs, Sanders, and Jack Caunt all went close but importantly they recycled the ball and eventually Jamie Guttridge got the touchdown. Rossiter’s conversion gave Newbury a 7-5 lead, and 3 minutes later he added a penalty for 10-5.
5 minutes after half-time Rossiter kicked another to inch the score up to 13-5. However rather than press-on, Newbury gave away a stream of penalties and conceded territory to Bletchley if not points. An unseemly brawl then led to two props and two scrumhalves being yellow-carded. Whatever the rights and wrongs of it, the scrums thus went uncontested for 10 minutes, and Newbury by allowing themselves to get involved had cost themselves the set-piece advantage they had worked so hard to gain.
On 21 minutes Newbury managed some good hands in midfield and got the ball wide to Darren Smith, who motored more than half the length of the pitch to score under the posts. Rossiter, of course, had no trouble making it 20-5. Five minutes later, with the numbers restored, Newbury took the ball through 10 or 12 phases near the Bletchley line. Your correspondent has no idea which players featured though as by now everyone was the same shade of muddy brown. Eventually a 5 metre scrum resulted and Hobbs took it from the back and fed it out to James Monger to make it 25-5.
With 10 to go, Newbury brought on their remaining fresh legs. Bartlett nearly forced a score from a Bletchley miss-kick. Oh, and we weren’t quite done with yellow cards yet as each side suffered one more. But Newbury, whose dominance from 20 minutes on had stemmed from excellent scrums and lineouts, failed to press on and get the bonus-point try, instead losing their discipline again and conceding more penalties and nearly a second try. Final score was thus 25-5.
Impossible conditions underfoot, and so this was a good winning score, but Maidenhead also won well today and a more disciplined Newbury performance will be needed next week, when Newbury play Maidenhead in their final league match in the first phase of the league, both having already qualified for the second phase which only involves the top four teams. Good luck lads.
Newbury:
Guttridge (Gibson), Sanders (Martin), Caunt; Dyer (D.Clarke), Sherratt; West, Hobbs, Spanswick (T.Clarke); Thorne (Bartlett), Rossiter; Monger (Lawrence), Digby, Brassey, Futcher (Smith); McIntyre
14/12 U15s gift Maids early Christmas present
December 17, 2008
Maidenhead 31 – Newbury 12
Maidenhead must have thought Christmas had come early as the U15s handed them easy points in the critical league opener away on Sunday.
Not only did the game start in the worst possible way for Newbury but problems were revealed in the first two minutes that continued throughout the game and proved to be Newbury’s downfall. After fielding the kick-off and making ground, Newbury failed to clear out and secure, turning over to the home side. Maidenhead advanced immediately deep into Newbury’s 22, thanks to a shambles of half-hearted tackles. Then from the breakdown 15 metres out, Maidenhead popped two passes to outside centre amid timid Newbury defenders who all seemingly expected someone else to make the tackle. Maidenhead touched down unchallenged and converted for 7-0 with barely two minutes on the clock.
The visitors let Maidenhead breeze through more missed tackles to notch up two more tries in the first 20 minutes, putting them three-nil ahead. Then just as it looked like Maidenhead might be in again, Harry Fisher put in a crunching tackle from which the ball spilled and was scooped up to George ‘Curly’ Thomas, who took advantage of the space and the wrong-footed defence to run 70 metres and touch down by the posts. Joe Leadley converted. Three tries to one at half time.
Despite everything the visitors were not out of it, however, and the course of the game might have turned early in the second half if they had taken their chance. Newbury pressed but came away from a sustained barrage on Maidenhead’s line, including two penalties 5 metres out, with nothing. And whenever the visitors managed to create overlaps, which they did on several occasions, the ball carrier drifted wide instead of making the pass and the chances were squandered. The second half then went much the same way as the first and Maidenhead chalked two more tries, before Newbury added the footnote just before full time. An attacking scrum deep in Maidenhead’s 22 yielded good ball once more – but this time quick hands shipped it wide to Jak Rossiter on the outside and he slid into the corner for 5 points.
Newbury gifted this match to Maidenhead and, in comparing the two teams, the final score 31 – 12 flattered the winners. That said, Newbury’s recycling and phase play were poor and the tackling was shocking, so it only has itself to blame. But there were positives from the game. Newbury’s scrum was excellent, supplying quality ball repeatedly and the backs were reliable, making consistent and steady gains. Unfortunately these were far outweighed by the woeful tackling and the inability to retain or gain possession at the breakdown or string phases together. Perhaps it was a lack of commitment or belief but, given early season training and having shown recently that they can do these, it was puzzling why the boys did not come up with the goods in this critical game. Had they put in the tackles and managed to offload or recycle when in attack, the result may well have been reversed. Newbury has the skills and quality but commitment, aggression and determination were all missing in this match. It is hoped that the boys can find some fire in their hearts over the Christmas break, and that the full squad is available, so they can start again and give themselves something to be proud of in January.
Newbury squad: T MaCaulay, T Soanes, J Newton, T Blake, H Fisher, T Simm, E Kershaw, J Stancombe (Capt), T Lauder, J Leadley, P Allan, A Huntsman, G Thomas (R West), A Cima, J Rossiter. B Hicks, J Miles, G Read-Smith.
17/12 Info for people travelling to Moseley
December 17, 2008
Moseley v Newbury - Visiting Supporters information sent from Moseley
We look forward to welcoming Newbury Blues and supporters on Saturday 20th December to Billesley Common for Moseley v Newbury with a 3.00pm kick off.
How to find us
Directions for travel to the ground are on the club website www.moseleyrugby.co.uk (How to find us). This includes details of train and bus travel. Train and bus to the ground is relatively straightforward.
Car parking is free, and disabled badge holders can park right next to the wheel-chair friendly clubhouse. To avoid congestion (and to keep our neighbours happy!) please follow the directions on the website and approach the ground from the South.
Bar & Catering
The bar and catering facilities are open from 12 noon on match day serving a variety of food such as “panini”, Chilli, jacket potatoes, succulent pork baps (described by a Rotherham visitor as “the best pork butty in Christendom!”) healthy sandwiches as well as the usual “chips with everything” from three different serving locations. We received plaudits from many visiting supporters last season. The bar usually has at least one real ale (currently Mansfield along with Banks Bitter) as well as the usual array of Guinness/Lager/Cider etc.
Match Preview & Report
Moseley’s match preview is on the club website (click on 1st XV then fixtures) by the Tuesday running up to the game. The Birmingham Post carries full match previews on Friday preceding the game. The Sunday Mercury carries the first match report though it is not always available on-line.http://www.sundaymercury.net/midlands-sport/midlands-rugby/
Unless you get left behind (or of course live locally) the match report from Monday’s Post is usually on their website mid morning www.birminghampost.net
Match Day entry
Entry is £14 for adults, Senior Citizens £9; Youth (Under 21) £5; Under 16 £2
The covered stand is £2 extra (please pay at the stand NOT on the gate)
Match Day Programme
The programme is available on the entry gates priced £2.
Further information
Further information is on the club website www.moseleyrugby.co.uk
If you can’t immediately find what you’re looking for - go to ‘What’s New’ and click on ‘A-Z’ at the top of the page.
If you have any queries please contact us either at the clubhouse on 0121 443 3631 or via email info@moseleyrugby.co.uk
We look forward to your visit!
Regards
Moseley Communications Team
PS
We would be delighted to hear what your supporters thought of their visit, both good and where we can improve - they’d be most welcome to email us info@moseleyrugby.co.uk
A couple of comments we have received this season (unsolicited - honest!):
Match Preview
“Just wanted to congratulate you all for the fantastic match review regarding the recent history and current performance of the Rotherham club on your website. It was the most accurate and unbiased write up I’ve seen yet - and I’ve been around the club for over 40 years!”
Food facilities and atmosphere
“Just wanted to say what a pleasure it was to visit your ground on Saturday 11th October. From the minute we (Nottingham Supporters) arrived at the gate we were made to feel very welcome. The food and facilities at Moseley are fantastic and were really appreciated. It was a good match and there was a lovely atmosphere throughout.”
15/12 Home v Bedford 27th Dec now a 3pm k/o
December 15, 2008
Due to feedback regarding this game on the 27th of December we have reverted the kick off back to 3pm.
Many supporters asked us for more time to get home and get ready for this fixture and we felt that on this occasion it made sense. We are grateful to Bedford who have agreed to the change at short notice.
We apologise if this new kick off time inconveniences anybody.
All other kick off times are unaffected.
15/12 A trip to Welsh for Blues in the cup!
December 15, 2008
The draw for the fourth round of the EDF Energy National Trophy was made today at Twickenham. The ties are to be played on January 17, 2009.
Newbury have drawn London Welsh away.
EDF Energy National Trophy, round four Full draw
Tynedale v Bedford
Dings Crusaders v Leeds Carnegie
Broadstreet v Rugby Lions or Bridgwater
Cinderford v Hull Ionians
Sedgley Park v Kendal
Penzance & Newlyn v Southend
Rotherham v Coventry
Moseley v Henley
Exeter v Preston Grasshoppers
Manchester v London Scottish or Basingstoke
Otley v Cambridge
Nottingham v Blaydon
Wharfedale or Launceston v Birmingham & Solihull
Doncaster v Plymouth Albion
London Welsh v Newbury
Mount’s Bay v Esher
About EDF Energy
EDF Energy is one of the UK’s largest energy companies. We provide power to a quarter of the UK’s population via our electricity distribution networks in London, the South East and the East of England. We supply gas and electricity to over 5 million customers and generate about 5GW of energy from our coal and gas power stations, as well as combined heat and power plants and wind farms.
Through Our Climate and Social Commitments we have launched the biggest environmental and social packages of any UK energy company. The company is also a key player in national infrastructure projects including management of private electricity networks serving four London airports and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, the country’s first major new railway in 100 years.
EDF Energy employs nearly 13,000 people at locations across the UK and is a core part of EDF Group, one of Europe’s largest power companies. EDF is the official energy utilities partner and sustainability partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.