Newbold 32 - 3 Southam

Following a number of encouraging performances, the travelling Southam side had high hopes and expectations of performing well against second in the league Newbold on Avon. However, the ‘bolds’ had their own ideas.
The game started poorly for Southam conceding a drop goal before they had even touched the ball. Almost a minute later, a cutting run from the Newbold pack with some excellent off-loading had created and overlap that the usual dogged Southam defence just could not react in time to stop.
Southam hardly had chance to regroup when another play by the Newbold backs saw them touch down in the corner for a 15 point lead.
5 minutes gone and things were looking grim for Southam. Never ones to concede to defeat, Southam finally began to wake to the match and started to create their own pressure. A few minutes camped in the Newbold 22 was rewarded with a penalty easily slotted by Tom Maguire. Things were looking up?
Southam continued to apply the pressure but they lacked the clinical finishing they had displayed in the prior weeks. A breakaway from Newbold was narrowly stopped short of the line and the half ended with no further incidents of note.
With the wind on their backs and the slope of the pitch to their advantage, Southam felt like the tide had turned. Sadly however, the pressure at the end of first half had dissipated and after the ball spilled loose from a ruck, the Newbold backs reacted faster and exploited the significant overlap they had to run in a quick score at the start of the second half.
The usual fire stoked in the Southam hearts after such a score never arose, and following a significant onslaught on the Southam left side, with line-outs and scrums all favouring the home side, a sly wide pass exploited a gap in the line and Newbold were through to score again.
The game now won by Newbold, only 10 minutes into the second half, now expected to score more and heavily, but Southam hung on to their pride only through the steely resilience and tackling they have shown all season. 10 minutes of scrumaging saw neither side make any progress and when the Southam backs broke and made good ground there was finally the possibility of a reward for the pressure they had applied. Sadly an error in the Newbold half lead to another breakaway run, which although stopped at the first time of asking, was quickly recycled and clinicially finished by Newbold.
The last 5 minutes were played in the Newbold 22, but Southam couldn’t manage to make that incisive run and the game finished 32 – 3.