Newtown v Shrewsbury

Despite the scoreline and conceding 5 tries to 1, this was a performance that our depleted squad can be very proud of. Following a number of injuries (on and off the pitch) leading up to the match, we had only 15 players although Olly S did arrive at half time, just in time to replace Ben P who went off injured (interesting route to the game via Newport which is an easy mistake to make Ben!!)

We faced a very well drilled Newtown team, most of whom are with the RGC Academy, and who demonstrated some very hard, direct running with dummy runners that stretched the Shrewsbury defence and resulted in some very well taken tries. Our only response came from quick thinking by Joe from a tap penalty, followed by a floated pass which found Finn on the wing allowing him to score in the corner despite scrambled cover from Newtown.

That was to be the only Shrewsbury score despite a number of runs, with most of the game taken up by an outstanding defensive effort. it would have been very easy for the boys heads to have dropped as they were outplayed for long periods of the game, but despite this, the whole team stepped up demonstrating some textbook tackling, with particular mention to Max playing at second row but tackling like the flanker that he is, Trivine putting together about four tackles in a row to go with the others that he did in the game, Ben H stopping a number of attacks and Jonty hitting everything that moved. Only right at the end when legs and heads were tired did Newtown score what might be described as a "soft" try with their captain running through a number of tackles to score with the final move of the game.

It is very difficult to coach heart and commitment, but the boys showed that they have it in spades, whether it was Connor forgoing his normal impact sub role to play a full 60 minutes, or Finn (our smallest player) stripping the ball off one of their biggest players about 5m from the line to stop a score.

Well done everyone - a fantastic effort that made parents and coaches very proud.