25/4: Points Difference Pain for Newbury U16s at A&C Tens
April 27, 2009
Newbury U16s Stags missed out on the Amersham & Chiltern Tens Title by dint of scoring 7 points fewer than rivals Reading Abbey throughout the whole tournament. Three teams went into the final round of matches level on match points having each won 3 games and lost 1. At this stage, Newbury led the tournament placings by virtue of having scored more points than both Abbey and Amersham & Chiltern. Although, all 3 teams won their final matches, Abbey romped home by 38 points to overtake the Newbury points total as the junior Blues could ‘only’ score 24 points in their final match against Bishops Stortford. So near, but yet so far and it was the unfortunate, but now traditional Newbury ‘slow start’ that led to their eventual downfall as they lost their opening encounter before going on to play some good rugby throughout the rest of the tournament.
Ironically, it was much improved local rivals Reading Abbey who were first up for Newbury after a delayed start to the competition. Newbury actually started the brighter and missed a couple of very good chances before the nerves set in and the ball seemed to turn into a bar of soap (in perfect conditions!) for most Newbury players. The handling deteriorated as the game wore on as Newbury started to panic and throw high risk passes that were never on. They lost control and they lost their shape and with very little time left they lost the game as Abbey managed to score a try in the corner from one of their few attacking positions. The try was beautifully converted from the touchline to give them a 7-0 victory which ironically proved to be the number of points by which they eventually won the title.
Newbury regrouped and hauled themselves back into contention with 3 straight victories. Amersham & Chiltern, the hosts, were comfortably beaten 27-0 thanks to tries from Ben Pritchard, Jacob Coplestone (2), James Moran and Jamie Stocks. Chris O’Halloran added one conversion. This win came at a price as skipper Jack Moates left the field injured and doubtful for the Newbury Tens. Next up were our very own Newbury Roebucks who were bravely competing in what was very much an A team tournament. The match was played with real intensity and no little skill with the Roebucks causing plenty of problems for the Stags before the A team ran out 25-5 winners thanks to tries from Stocks (2), Nick Baboolal, O’Halloran and Will Harwood. Chris Abbott scored an excellent try for the Roebucks. The penultimate match for the Stags was against old rivals Maidenhead who were determined not to be on the end of another whacking from Newbury. Although Newbury took a 10-0 half time lead thanks to tries from Stocks and Harwood, Maids came back to dominate the second half. They claimed a very good try and conversion to bring the score back to 10-7 and Newbury had to defend with their lives to keep them out and hang on to their narrow lead until the final whistle blew.
It was following the fourth round of matches that Newbury learned that Abbey had slipped up against Amersham & Chiltern and that they were now back in the title hunt. They knew that they had to keep the scoreboard ticking over against Bishops Stortford and after a nervy start eventually ran out 24-5 winners thanks to tries from Stocks, O’Halloran, Pritchard and James Smith. O’Halloran added 2 conversions to extend the Newbury lead but the rest is history as Abbey did what was required on the adjacent pitch to take the title by a very slender margin.
As already mentioned, the Roebucks were also in action at the tournament and despite their valiant efforts they were unable to claim a scalp which is hardly surprising against high quality A teams from around the Home Counties. The closest the Roebucks came was in their first match against Maidenhead where despite conceding a 14-0 half time deficit they fought back skilfully to match Maidenhead for tries thanks to scores from Harry Bate and Matt Childs. Unfortunately, neither was converted and although the Roebucks threw everything at Maidenhead they were unable to score again and went down 14-10 in what was one of the best games of the day. In their other matches, Newbury Roebucks went down to Abbey, Newbury Stags, Amersham & Chiltern and Bishops Stortford but they competed tirelessly and never threw in the towel. They also seemed to be on the end of some pretty harsh refereeing interpretations in most of their games which didn’t help their cause. The exception was the Newbury Stags v Newbury Roebucks fixture that was thankfully refereed very fairly and objectively by Newbury’s own Dave Smith.
So, it was a long day in Buckinghamshire where Newbury almost came away with some more silverware. They have to overcome their tendency to start slowly if they are to progress next week in the Newbury Tens Festival, but at least this outing will have given them some much needed Tens practice ahead of the main event.
Comments
Got something to say?