Blues triumph with true grit!
Newbury Blues were back home to meet Old Centralians, a renewed rivalry in the rearranged Tribute Severn League. A close game was in prospect – and so it proved. Snatching the win in the closing minutes of the game, in the words of Blues coach James McAvoy: “Very proud of our resilience as a team to problem solve in difficult conditions and win ugly. The scrum set the platform and the boot of Dan Thorne got us the win after spells of physical defensive stands. Pleasingly, there is a lot more to come from this team who are buying into progressing”.
First points went in the first couple of minutes to the Old Cents, with a fine try, but the Blues put points on the board within a very few minutes of that. As the rain came down, play settled for the next 20 minutes before Flanker Will Osborne drove out an excellent try, converted by Captain Dan Thorne, to take the Blues ahead. If the Blues felt a bit comfy, that was a mistake; Old Cents levelled the score with another (unconverted) try in the 34th minute from Fly Half G Deane, who featured in a lot of their points throughout the match.
Both sides came out strongly in the second half but, no sooner had the Blue edged ahead, than Old Cents levelled and put a converted try on top to stand at 13:20. With 20 minutes to go, the visitors’ bigger pack and high tails were beginning to show on a flagging Newbury team, pinned on the try-line for some long minutes; the fans were beginning to feel a bit despondent.
Then they turned it around. A smashing try by Full Back Ben Hurford-John in the 73rd minute was ably converted by the Captain. All square. With just three minutes to go, he coolly stepped forward again to secure three penalty points and take the game. Wow!
The Newbury Blues are away at Thornbury RFC on 4th October and back home on 11th October to host old rivals Trowbridge. Come on you Blues!
Photo by kind permission of Peter Branch
