Today’s game saw unbeaten Newport visit the home of the Spartans. After last seasons game we weren’t sure how we’d stack up against a team that gave us a lesson in rugby.
Stafford had decided to play a few players in new positions with a few players out through injury but this didn’t seem to break any cohesion as Stafford were totally dominant in the first quarter. Stafford got their reward eventually with a great team try sucking all the Newport players in to make space around the outside to score. The quarter could have been even better after a try being held up and two disallowed tries for stepping over the touch line and a forward pass denying them what would have been a fair reflection of the play, but 1-0 the quarter ended.
2nd quarter and few changes. The changes seemed to disrupt a bit of rhythm but not the effort from the boys and this quarter was a lot closer. A nicely worked try by Newport and and great interception and dart for the line so Newport go into half time 2-1

HALF TIME saw all teams pay their two minutes respect for Remembrance.

3rd quarter was underway and Stafford hadn’t come out to play at all. Costly mistakes and some poor rucking saw Newport take complete control of the game. Heads dropped and the floodgates started to open. Stafford were just not in this quarter and had let all their hard work go.

After the 3rd quarter ended and the 4th started Stafford had a few words of encouragement from the coaches. They seemed to wake up and started to compete and play. By this point both teams were looking leggy and it showed when one of the Newport players ran from coast to coast to score. Stafford however responded with 3 tries of their own, the highlight being the second row running the length of the field to score (who knew he had that kind of pace).

Final score 9-4

On reflection bar the implosion in the 3rd quarter Stafford played some really great rugby and could have easily been 4-0 up in the first quarter but the fine margins went against us. After the match the Newport coaches congratulated the team for their hardest game they’ve played. Plenty for us to still work on but some really good signs going forward