Newcastle (Staffs) 76 - 3 Aston Old Edwardians

With lots of late cry-offs and others engaged on business and booked holidays Aston set off with sixteen men whilst the Seconds ended up with a contingent of twenty one at home. Shurely shome mishtake!

The upshot was that Aston played thirty minutes of the match with fourteen men and this was reflected in the final score after Aston had made a positive start. Newcastle had scored 122 points against Uttoxeter the previous week and probably expected to do the same again. The visitors, however, played a decent first thirty minutes after beating off a strong attack from Newcastle in the opening moments.

Hostilities resumed and Newcastle had a scrum five from which their left wing got over in the corner with the conversion failing. Aston went on the march but conceded a penalty and their threat was averted. Jordan Young dislocated a knee but it seemed to slide back in when it was moved. Nevertheless, it was the end of matters for him and he was carted off to hospital. Newcastle grabbed a second try from the restart and converted. Aston put in a further, impressive bout of defence before surging upfield and winning a penalty which Ian Lyons converted beautifully from thirty metres.

Newcastle scored from the kick off and, it has to be said, they are a respectable side all round, winning plenty of ball and having a solid set of backs , and an especially talented left wing who ended with a hatful of tries. Kamran Choudhry was hurt but resumed after treatment and put his heart and soul into his work. Aston's usual poor period visited again and, in the ten minutes before half time, they conceded three tries, all of which were converted. We do this almost every week and we need to get a grip of it. At half time the scoreboard read 40-3.

A missed touch from a penalty gave the home side the opportunity to add seven more points but there were many people for Aston who were playing out of position and Newcastle exploited this. At the other end Nick Whiteman led an assault on the Newcastle line which established a good position from which Aston maintained the pressure a metre out. The home side felt the heat but, finally, a knock on put paid to Aston's hopes and Newcastle broke away again to claim a try under the posts.

Aston were not having much luck, except that the referee awarded them plenty of penalties at the breakdown but Kamran Choudhry twisted an ankle and had to leave the field to the fourteen remaining warriors. Max Vlahakis had a finger injury and this was followed up with a dislocated finger for Gareth Given whilst Paul Bradley was playing with a swollen knuckle from a suspected broken metacarpal.

All hands to the pump! With this situation and with people playing out of position it was not surprising that the home team got four more tries before the end, with three being converted. All in all, though, there were many positives. Newcastle did not have things their own way. Tony Parry and David Ingleby made a passable, if rather imbalanced, pairing at second row and the scrum went fairly well, as did most of the lineouts. We were strong at the breakdown and everybody gave what they had whilst good leadership from Nick Whiteman made a strong contribution to the afternoon.

On paper, before the match, you wouldn't have given this team much of a chance and the score says they lost by a lot but the game was not as one-sided as the result suggests and every one of our blokes can hold his head up.