Newton RUFC 15

Eagle RUFC 16

NEWTON'S poor run of form continued in South Lancashire/Cheshire League One as they conceded a try in the final seconds of the game.

Despite having to make a number of changes due to injury, Newton still had a side good enough to come away with the points.

The game was going to be influenced by a very strong wind which blew directly down the field yet it was Newton, playing against it in the first half, who made the early ground.

Excellent driving runs by Eden and Southern followed by good prompting by scrum half Kenrick saw Newton produce a ruck five metres from the Eagle line, from this Kenrick fed Southern who crashed over in the corner.

With the score now at 5-0 and Newton dominating every phase of play, they should have turned the screw on Eagle. But the inexperience of the Newton players shone through and Eagle were allowed to go into a 6-5 lead.

The half finished with Eagle in front yet, for most of the first 40 minutes, Newton were the better side.

The second half began in barnstorming fashion and a series of excellent rucks saw the ball move to Eden who made a great break before feeding Carden who crashed through three tackles to cross between the posts. Boulton added the conversion to make it 12-5.

At last Newton turned the screw on Eagle and put pressure on the home side at every opportunity. They were rewarded when Boulton further extended the lead to 15-5 with a penalty.

With 20 minutes to go, Newton looked to be cruising to victory and, yet again, they stopped playing. This allowed Eagle to play a slow mauling game.

They lost line-outs and started conceding silly penalties again - one for offside in the centres was converted to allow Eagle to come within a converted try of snatching the game.

With Newton now being dominated at every phase of the game, it was only a matter of time before the inevitable occurred and after a pile of 16 bodies went over the line the referee, with seemingly excellent vision, awarded a try which was converted.

This was the final play of the match and Newton conceded a very disappointing result.

Newton must make efforts to put things right this weekend, they travel to North One side Broughton Park in the Intermediate Cup.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.