Colts on Sunday
October 17, 2009
Colts games this Sunday 18th at Newbury RFC KO’s 2pm
U19’s Colts play Longlevens (Gloucestershire) in the National Colts Cup
U17’s Colts play Bedford in a friendly
Come see the future
04/10 Colts Results
October 4, 2009
Results from todays OBB League matches for Newbury RFC U17’s and U19’s Colts
U19’s OBB League Div 1 Newbury RFC Colts 39 - 3 Maidenhead RFC Colts
U17’s OBB League Div 1 Amersham & Chiltern RFC U17’s 24 - 27 Newbury RFC U17’s
Great results for both teams in their opening League matches
Match Reports to follow
6/4 U17’s Just pipped by Exeter
April 6, 2009
Newbury U17s vs Exeter (National U17s Cup South West Division Final - 05/04/2009)
Newbury’s high-flying Under 17s squad visited Wimborne on Sunday afternoon for the regional final of the National Under 17s championship, after a triumphant run, which has marked them out as one of the top eight teams in the country at this age group (and deservedly so).
Newbury started without the injured Ben West, Jack Brassey, and Jack Sherratt but the feature of this squad has always been strength in depth and so it proved in this match as the players coming into the side stepped up to the mark. Exeter were known from their victories over Bournemouth and Redingensians to have a huge pack and probably started the game as most people’s favourites, but it appeared that no one had told that to the Newbury team!
The first five minutes saw the forwards sizing each other up in the middle of the park. Exeter put up a couple of high kicks to test the Newbury fullback, but Jamie Mcintyre caught both superbly. On 8 minutes it was Newbury who showed the first real flair, with a looping run by Rhys Jenkins and the ball going wide to Darren Smith who was only stopped by a very good (if slightly high) tackle. Then it was Exeter who threatened the Newbury line only to be stopped by Ollie Spanswick robbing the ball brilliantly and Jenkins clearing safely to touch. At the midpoint of the first half it was all Exeter in terms of possession and territory, but Newbury were equal to all threats and it was unexpected when the Exeter 10 cut through the middle, only to drop the ball in the act of scoring.
On 26 minutes, Exeter had a very kickable penalty, which was surprisingly missed by their kicker. Then when Newbury managed to get the ball upfield and ease the pressure, we saw Jenkins looping again, which led to first Mcintyre then Smith running inventively at the Exeter defence. Again back with the ball deep in the Newbury half, we saw Guttridge break from defence and release the backs, the ball swinging wide to Remi Digby whose run down the touchline was stopped only by an excellent Exeter tackle.
On 37 minutes and still playing, Jim Monger caught another Exeter kick, and ran an outrageously wide arc back into the Exeter half, where Exeter infringed at the subsequent ruck, and Jenkins uncharacteristically missed the penalty attempt. As the half ran interminably on, Exeter were awarded a penalty and Tom Dyer received a harsh yellow card for a series of infringements by his team. Exeter kicked it and looked as though they would have a scarcely deserved half-time lead.
But straight from the restart, Jamie Guttridge rose high to catch the kick, Newbury drove him forward, and when the ruck formed Exeter put hands in to concede a penalty, from which Jenkins made no mistake – three points all! At last the half-time whistle came.
Two minutes into the second period Exeter responded to what must have been a very severe half-time lecture by forcing a scrum on the Newbury 22. Their excellent scrumhalf, Nathan Banks, picked up at the back and looped wide to score in the corner. The conversion was just too difficult, but now at 8-3 Newbury were on the back foot.
Newbury responded, and Mcintyre and Josh Love combined well, Scotty Wilson kicked to the corner and Newbury forced a lineout. From the lineout, Newbury drove over the line, but were held up. An Exeter forward infringed and Newbury took the penalty quickly. The ball was moved down the line, Monger ran an inside line from Chris Lawrence, and although he was stopped, Newbury were awarded a second penalty which Jenkins kicked for 6-8.
At 10 minutes an Exeter man received a yellow card for coming into the side at a ruck. Newbury now had the extra man. Wilson departed with a knock and Josh Bartlett replaced him. Despite being one man down, Exeter forced their way forward again and won a penalty, which they gratefully accepted for an 11-6 lead.
On 15 minutes Newbury won a penalty, which Guttridge took quickly. When he was stopped Exeter were adjudged not 10, and Jenkins kicked the new penalty to the corner. Dyer won the lineout cleanly, Newbury drove him across the line, and Josh Love gratefully took the ball to touch down.
Even Rhys Jenkins could not kick that conversion – from the touchline and against the wind. So entering the final quarter it was 11 points all.
Tom Sanders came on for Jack Caunt, and made an immediate impression with a bullocking run up the middle. Then on 23 minutes the whole Newbury pack joined a massive drive to take Newbury up to the 22 where they won a scrum. From the ruck which followed the scrum, Exeter were again penalized for putting hands in, and Jenkins calmly slotted the penalty to take Newbury ahead for the first time, 14-11.
With 5 minutes left, Exeter stepped up the pressure, but Newbury’s defence was amazing, tackle after tackle forcing Exeter backwards. It looked as though the pressure was over when the scrumhalf lost his footing, but somehow Exeter retained possession and their prop gathered and forced his way through to score. A successful conversion left Newbury 4 points behind with just a few minutes to play. Newbury tried to come back, but even with the fresh legs of Craigen and Maher, it was just too late and the final whistle came with the score at 18-14 to Exeter.
This has been an amazing season for Newbury Under 17s, with this group of young men finally fulfilling the potential which has been evident for a number of years, both in winning the Oxford, Berks and Bucks league, then in this superb run all the way to the National South West Final where they came within 4 minutes of a famous victory. Immense credit is due to head coach Andy Widdop and his team, and to manager Mick Futcher.
This season has seen three or four players join the club in key positions, plus a number of others stepping up their game to reveal hitherto unsuspected talents. This is combined with the fact that almost without exception the players who have shone through at Under 16, Under 15, and Under 14 …in many cases back to Under 7 have stayed in the ranks. It means Andy has been picking from a pool of players well in excess of 30, all of whom have stepped up to the mark when their chance has come. It will be a major surprise if we do not see several of this squad playing for Newbury first team before too many years go by.
Newbury: Guttridge, Love, Caunt(Sanders); Dyer, T.Clark(Craigen); Murray(Maher), Hobbs, Spanswick; Wilson(Bartlett), Jenkins; Monger, Digby, Lawrence(D.Clarke), Smith; Mcintyre; subs: Futcher, Martin
Paul Sanders U17’s roving reporter
03/04 U17’s take on Exeter Chiefs
April 3, 2009
Newbury RFC U17’s travel to Wimborne RFC on Sunday 5th to do battle with Exeter Chiefs U17’s in the final of the National U17’s Cup South West Division.
23/03 U17’s progress to National Cup South West Division Final
March 23, 2009
Newbury Under 17s vs. Cheltenham U17’s, 22-03-09
National U17’s Cup, South West Division (Semi Final)
As a “reward” for their victory in the last round over Redruth, Newbury had a home draw against Cheltenham in the National U17’s Cup, South West Division semi final. This match took place on the 1st team pitch in front of quite a large crowd, thanks to all the parents, non playing 17’s squad members and NRFC members who came up to support the U17’s, hope you all enjoyed the match.
Newbury kicked off with the slight breeze behind them immediately regaining possession and attacking the Cheltenham line only being stopped when they knocked on. Cheltenham win their scrum but under fierce Newbury pressure give away an early penalty, which R. Jenkins slotted over 3-0 to Newbury.
After a period of play, which saw both sides give away needless penalties and knock ons, Newbury took control and some good attacking rugby, resulted in prop J. Guttridge charging through the Cheltenham defence to score. R Jenkins conversion sailing through the posts to make the score 10-0 to Newbury.
Within three minutes Newbury had scored their second try when some good running rugby from inside their own half from Hobbs and Guttridge cut through the Cheltenham defence allowing the centres Lawrence and Digby to pass down the line to fullback J. Mcintyre to score wide out on the right, R Jenkins narrowly missing the long conversion, 15-0 to Newbury.
The next 5 minutes saw both sides unable to break through each other’s defence, good runs from Monger and Brassey being stopped by some good tackling from the Cheltenham defensive line and fullback J McIntyre having to leave the field with a dead leg injury picked up in the first 5 minutes, being replaced by J. Futcher, his first job being to tackle Cheltenham’s winger who held on giving Newbury a penalty. R. Jenkins putting the ball some distance into touch for an attacking Newbury lineout, the forwards true to form won the lineout through Dyer and after a couple of good attacking phases forced Cheltenham to give away a penalty which R. Jenkins slotted through the posts 18-0 to Newbury.
Cheltenham now produced some of their best rugby and forced Newbury to defend for the last five minutes of the first half, Newbury’s defence gallantly stood firm but were breached right on half time as the Cheltenham backs broke through the stretched Newbury defensive line to score, the conversion bringing the half time whistle and a score of 18-7 to Newbury.
After a half time talk from coaches Andy Widdop and Neil Collins Newbury stormed straight up field from Cheltenham’s kick off, the forwards gaining good ground before J. Love broke away passing to J. Guttridge to make the last few yards to score close to the posts, R. Jenkins making no mistake with the conversion 25-7 to Newbury.
The next five minutes saw Newbury camped on Cheltenham’s line but they were unable to break through a resolute Cheltenham defence, finally a loose ball was fly hacked downfield by Cheltenham and the race was on, a second kick from half way saw Cheltenham just win the race to a nicely rolling ball to score under the posts, a successful conversion saw the score narrow to 25-14.
This gave Cheltenham a lift and they spent most of the next ten minutes forcing Newbury to defend. During this time Newbury brought on some fresh legs, J. Bartlett replaced scrum half S. Wilson who had had another good day at the office. During another Cheltenham attack which Newbury and stopped 10 meters from their line tempers frayed and a brief stand off some how resulted in a Cheltenham penalty. From the resulting line out Cheltenham spread the ball through their backs to score wide out on the left, an unsuccessful conversion left the score at 25-19 to Newbury and approx 15 minutes to go.
Newbury brought on T. Sanders and D. Smith for J. Caunt and C. Lawrence and after a couple of forward phases scrum half J. Bartlett made good ground and a chip over the Cheltenham defence nearly resulted in a great move but instead a Cheltenham penalty which they kicked to touch.
Newbury now brought on the remainder of the subs, T. Clarke, T. Martin, and M Maher replacing T. Dyer, J. love and W. Murray. With 10 minutes to go Cheltenham played some of their best attacking rugby and camped themselves in the Newbury 22, forcing some desperate defence from the Newbury squad who were forced to give away several penalties, Newbury’s defence held firm eventually forcing Cheltenham to spill the ball which Newbury gathered and gladly hoofed into touch bringing an end to a long second half and a great victory for Newbury in a close and keenly contested cup match, which was a credit to both teams.
In the other semi final Exeter Chiefs beat Redingensians 22-3, which means an Exeter v Newbury, South West Cup final at Wimbourne RFC on 5th April, (2pm KO, TBC)
Squad; Guttridge, Love(Martin), Caunt(Sanders); Dyer(T.Clark),
West; Murray(Maher), Hobbs, Spanswick; Wilson(Bartlett), Jenkins;
Monger, Lawrence, (Smith); Digby, Brassey(Smith); Mcintyre(Futcher)
18/03 Newbury U17’s
March 18, 2009
Newbury U17’s play Cheltenham this Sunday 22nd in the U17’s National cup South West Division semi finals at Newbury RFC KO 2pm. Come and support the youth of Newbury RFC.
14/03 Blues lose in Manchester
March 14, 2009
Manchester 35 Newbury 17
Just a week after beating Coventry the Blues put in a poor performance that saw them come away with nothing at Manchester.
The first half saw Newbury try to play 7’s style rugby against a stiff breeze and they where punished by a determinded Manchester side. Manchester played some basic but effective rugby and it was only when the game was all but lost did the Blues show what they are more than capable of.
One to forget and move on to the massive but exciting challange of Doncaster next week.
09/03 U17’s Draw against Cheltenham
March 9, 2009
Newbury RFC U17’s have been drawn at home against Cheltenham in the next round of the National U17’s competion. This is the semi finals of the South West Division and will take place on Sunday March 22
09/03 U17’s v Redruth Match Report
March 9, 2009
Newbury Under 17s vs Redruth (National U17s Cup 08/03/2009)
U17’s Roving Reporter, Paul (the scribe) Sanders
As a “reward” for their triumph in the OBB Under 17s league, Newbury were drawn against Redruth in the South West quarter of the National Under 17s cup. Competition rules dictated that because of the distance between the clubs the game would be played “half-way”, and so it was that the lads and their loyal supporters trekked to St Ivel Barbarians in Yeovil to play the match. The pitch sloped like the famous Yeovil football pitch (which once saw off the mighty Arsenal), the wind registered high on the Beaufort scale, and a hailstorm greeted the pre-match warm-up.
To be fair, the hail stopped, but the wind never did. Newbury were to play the first half with the wind behind them and surely would need to establish a 20-point lead. From the off they looked like they could do it, and within a minute had a very kickable penalty which Rhys Jenkins uncharacteristically missed. On nine minutes though, the lively Will Murray broke away, the ball spun right to Chris Lawrence who cut inside. Ollie Spanswick supported him on the inside and the pack arrived to set the ball up. The ball was slipped inside to Michael Hobbs who spun out of a half-tackle and needed no second invitation to dive over for the try. Jenkins kicked this one for 7-0.
Newbury with the big wind advantage always looked threatening, and goods runs by James Monger, Jamie McIntyre and the elusive Jack Brassey constantly threatened to increase the score. On 22 minutes Spanswick, Ben West and Scott Wilson combined well only for Jamie Guttridge to unluckily knock-on, but the result was a penalty, which Jenkins only just failed to convert.
With just 8 minutes to half time, Newbury were well on top, but the prospects of reaching the safety of a 20-point lead looked slim. Perhaps it needed a moment of individual brilliance to unlock the Redruth defence, and it came from the balletic Jack Brassey who sprinted and sidestepped his way though from the halfway line to score an excellent try. Jenkins, now firmly finding his range added a very good conversion.
Direct from the restart, Ollie Spanswick was the victim of an early tackle. Jenkins kicked the penalty long to touch. A copy-book lineout take by Ben West was followed by a 10 metre drive by the entire pack, thrusting the huge Cornishmen backwards with consummate ease, and Ollie Spanswick had the easiest of tasks to drop on the ball for 19-0. The reliable Jenkins converted.
Suddenly Newbury had their 20-point cushion, but they weren’t done yet. Love took one of several scrums against the head, Mcintyre produced a strong run and then Guttridge took it on another 20 metres. At the breakdown Redruth conceded a penalty, which Jenkins kicked for a 5-metre lineout. Newbury tried to repeat their previous catch and drive, but this time Redruth collapsed the maul. As the ball came free, Guttridge picked up and drove over for the try. Jenkins, now kicking faultlessly made it 28-0 as the half-time whistle sounded.
Into the wind, the second half was always going to be about containment. At that stage we would have taken, say, 28-14. But Newbury continued to play the better rugby. Tom Sanders and Tom Clarke came on to add fresh legs, but Sanders could do no more about a loosehead scrummaging at 45 degrees to the tunnel than Caunt had managed – and the referee thought Caunt and Sanders were the sinners! (Oh the dark arts of the front row…). Newbury now introduced Josh Bartlett, replacing Scott Wilson who has grown in stature as this season has progressed and with his performance today totally justified his starting berth.
Redruth hoisted the ball high but Brassey called the mark and Josh Bartlett turned his indifferent clearance into a gem by chasing it down brilliantly. Newbury introduced Martin, Futcher, Maher and Smith who fitted seamlessly into the team pattern and brought much-needed “fresh legs”. Several times Redruth kicked deep into Newbury territory, but wisely in this wind, Newbury elected to run out of defence every time, Remi Digby and Jamie Futcher doing so with notable success.
With 5 minutes left an unseemly fracas broke out. Perhaps this expressed Redruth’s frustration at being well and truly beaten, but Newbury’s players looked all too keen to join the melee. The referee might justifiably have produced a kaleidoscope of cards, but wisely decided the incident had been so against the spirit of the rest of the game that a stern lecture and a plea for a return to some sanity was the best course of action. He was proven right as the game returned to its former good nature, though we did see a yellow card for a high tackle on Futcher.
The result was about right – Redruth were big and strong up front, though overall Newbury won the forward battle. But behind the scrum the Cornishmen showed little flair, whereas Newbury constantly tried to run the ball inventively, even when the wind was at its heights.
For Newbury there were 22 contenders for the man of the match, every last man gave their very best for the cause. But surely no one will object if I mention that Ollie Spanswick’s contribution was simply awesome; today he covered every blade of grass on this pitch just like a top number 7 should.
Elsewhere, Redingensians beat Maidenhead 17-5 and Exeter beat number one seeds Bournemouth 26-15, but I am unable to confirm Newbury’s next opponents between Cheltenham and Hornets. I did try looking on the official RFU site under “National Under 17s Competition”, but all that had to offer was the results of the 2007 competition (why am I not surprised?).
Newbury: Guttridge, Love(Martin), Caunt(Sanders); Dyer(T.Clark), West; Murray(Maher), Hobbs, Spanswick; Wilson(Bartlett), Jenkins; Monger, Lawrence, Digby, Brassey(Smith); Mcintyre(Futcher)
08/03 NRFC U17’s beat Redruth 28-0 in first round of National U17’s cup, match report to follow
March 8, 2009