Location – Away
Newcastle travelled to Telford with several late changes to the starting line up. Although the start of the match you could not tell, from the kick off Telford were pinned back deep into their half and from a maul 5 meters out prop Stuart Tait broke from the edge to dive over for the opening try. Ash Martin narrowly missed the conversion. After 10 minutes a blind side move saw the ball move to winger Sam Evans who broke through two tackles to score in the corner, Martin missed the difficult conversion. Further Newcastle pressure saw Telford ground the ball over the try line from the resulting 5 meter scrum Newcastle’s pack drove over the line with number 8 Chris Miller touching down, Martin missed the conversion. Telford had chance to put points on the board but pushed the penalty attempt wide. More pressure on a Telford scrum in their own 22 saw a clearance kick collected by full back Kev Edwards sprint towards the left hand corner with quick recycled ball the forwards passed the ball across the width of the pitch with prop Chris Fowler drawing the last defender to pass to winger Tom Westwood to touch down in the corner for the bonus point try, Martin missed the conversion from the touchline. The next penalty saw Martin punt the kick into Telford’s corner, from the lineout a catch and drive move saw Chris Fowler score the try, conversion was missed.
Half time Telford 0 Newcastle 25
The second half started with horizontal driving rain. From a penalty Martin kicked the ball into the corner, from the lineout a front ball peel saw flanker Kieran Johnson drive over for the score in the corner, the conversion was missed. Telford got back into the game with a number of penalties, and from the last, gave them the line out which saw a catch and drive touch down in the corner. From a poor clearance kick Telford again put pressure on the Newcastle line and with a kick to the corner Telford turned the ball over in the maul, and with Newcastle’s backs tied in, Telford’s center broke down the blind side to score. Newcastle immediately had a chance to reply and Martin slotted the penalty.. More pressure from Newcastle saw the ball held up by illegal hands which saw Telford’s 2nd row yellow carded and shortly after a 5 meter scrum was driven over for Miller to score his 2nd with Martins first conversion adding to the total.
Full Time Telford 10 Newcastle 40
Newcastle Fowler, Kershaw, Tait, Blunt, Oliver, Johnson, Scott, Miller; Jones, Martin Evans, O’Neil, Sale, Westwood, Edwards. Reps. Zielinski, Prince, White.
Tries Tait Evans Miller (2) Westwood Fowler Johnson
Con Martin
Pen Martin