South slip up in Shropshire

Newport is always a tough place to go and get a result and so it proved for South in this latest round of N3M games. One victory in six visits is not an enviable record but, apparently, it could have been a different story yesterday.

South were hampered by the coach sat nav again being on the blink as the squad arrived in Newport later than one would have expected and consequently the normal important lengthy warm up was abbreviated.
However, South played some good stuff in fits and starts leading the game until the latter stages when they ran out of steam for Newport to score two tries, one converted, to take the game. I guess the early three converted penalties scored by Newport were a direct result of a lack of focus that could have been directly attributed to the poor preparation. Apparently, defensive lapses (normally a South strength) also contributed to the visitor’s downfall.

Scorers for South were Gareth Clarke and Simon Johnson with one try apiece while Mark Lord added a conversion and a penalty. Losing within seven points at least rewarded South with a vital bonus point.

With DK winning at Longton it probably puts paid to any hopes of taking the play off spot for promotion as the gap has now been extended to eight points.

South would hope to take the maximum number of points available from the remaining five home matches including the last day showdown with DK. Two potential banana skins do exist, however, with away days at Rugby Lions and Longton – like Newport never the easiest place’s to go to achieve a victory.

Ultimately a disappointment, but never say never as we are still in with a shout although somebody else will now probably need to do South a favour!