Sat 17 Nov 2018
Newton Abbot “All Whites” poor season continued with their ninth loss on the bounce when visiting Weston-Super-Mare extended their winning sequence to three.
The home side made the perfect start to lead 7-nil and twice only trailed by two points, 19-17 and 27-29, but by the end the visitors were far enough ahead to deny their hosts anything from the match.
A well worked three-quarter move saw centres Filip Perica and Kevin Dennis combine to put the latter in for a try at the posts that was converted by fly-half Tom Putt.
This lead didn’t last long, Newton defended too narrowly at a scrum deep in their territory allowing the Weston full back, Robbie Mackay, to exploit a two man overlap. Fly-half James Mackay converted to level.
Another overlap try followed, the Newton defence was sucked in freeing up space for winger Alex Howman to score at the corner flag.
The Mackay double act then struck again; Robbie sniping around the base of a ruck to score under the posts for brother James to convert.
A high tackle cost Robbie Mackay a spell in the bin and Newton took advantage of the extra man to get back into the game.
Putt put over a penalty and then added the extras to a try for lock Ian Milton who got on the end of a move that started with flanker Josh Vickridge and also involved No. 8 Martin Harrison-Browne.
Scores around either side of half-time for the Somerset based side proved pivotal to the outcome of the game.
After trailing by 12 points, Newton would have been more than happy to be only 19-17 adrift at the turn, but James Mackay kicked a penalty with the last kick of the half for a 22-17 lead.
The fly-half was soon in action in the second half, converting a corner try from No. 8 Brad Talbot who was given far too much room down the blindside of a touchline ruck.
A second yellow for Weston again cost them points. Putt kicked the penalty and then converted a pushover try credited to No. 8 Harrison-Browne. This 5-metre set piece came after the referee, Tom Falkingham, deemed the ball to be held up after Vickridge had done everything but score.
A James Mackay penalty made it 32-27, leaving any result available with 10 minutes to go.
Talbot’s second try through some ineffectual tackling decided the outcome, but valuable bonus points were still available for the losers. However, over the closing minutes, as hard as they tried, the fourth try wouldn’t come.
The “All Whites” still have plenty of matches to get themselves out of the mire, the first of which is at basement club Old Patesians tomorrow.
While the 1st XV were battling hard at Rackerhayes, the Spartans were in winning action only six minutes away in Teignmouth. The visitors racked up 54 points without response in a match confined to 60 minutes.
Winger Max Snowdon had a field day with 30 points made up of four tries and five conversions. Other tries went to Charlie Dore, Aaron Brown, Chris Courtier and Aaron Meakin. Will Throgmorton was on target with a couple of conversions.
Victory keeps the Spartans amongst the front runners in Devon Merit One. Saturday, whilst the 1st XV are in Cheltenham, Newton’s second string provide the home action when they take on Okehampton, who are likely to provide sterner opposition. K.O. 2.30pm.
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