Fixture

Yesterday, Newbridge travelled a short distance to Blackwood for the eagerly awaited local derby. The boys arrived bright and early to warm up and to get used to the ‘cabbage patch’. The crowd gathered and the sidelines were awash with the black, red and gold of Blackwood and blue and black of Newbridge.

Newbridge won the toss and kicked off. Blackwood came out of the traps quickly and it became apparent that their game plan was to stifle the speedy Newbridge backs. Blackwood showed excellent blitz defence and sent Newbridge backwards, Newbridge gained a few yards but at the end of the 6^th tackle, they were still on the half way line. Blackwood had their tails up and quickly got hold of the ball and after a few phases they went over the whitewash. Newbridge restarted, but Blackwood kept the intensity high and didn’t give Newbridge time to breathe. Again, they turned the ball over and moments later went over the try line again to go 2 – nil up.

Despite the pressure, Newbridge didn’t panic and knew that Blackwood wouldn’t be able to continue with the high intensity. They pressed forward towards the line with ground made by Oliver Thomas and managed to pull a try back through the brute strength of Evan Maher. Blackwood showed some great skills from Casey looping around Dylan and receiving the ball again. He quickly offloaded it and the direction of play was switched again and a gap opened up for them to enable another try in the corner. Newbridge pulled a couple more back through Mason Thomas and the Ollie ‘sidestep’ Penny to make it 3-3. Blackwood then added another just before half time to go 4-3 up.

During the team talk, Newbridge knew they had to lie deeper to give themselves more space and to move the ball around quicker. They also had to improve their defence and to close Blackwood down. The plan was to prevent Blackwood from scoring in the 2^nd half.

Blackwood restarted and it was evident that the Newbridge team talk had worked. Blackwood were pushed backwards and the ball was turned over. Mad Mac quickly got hold of the ball and passed to the big forwards of Charlie, Jake and Logan who went through a few phases and set it nicely for Ioan Herbert to charge through the Blackwood defence to level the score. Newbridge were at last back in the game. Blackwood marched towards the line, but Newbridge stuck to their plan of not allowing them to score and Evan Maher pinned them backwards with some ferocious tackles that would scare the All Blacks. Newbridge turned the ball over near their own try line and the boys jumped for joy. Blackwood’s heads dropped slightly and Newbridge took advantage of this. Mad Mac quickly got hold of the ball and continued the intensity and spun the ball out wide. Caden Parham showed a good pair of heals and made some good ground. The boys got into a deep position and the ball was released to Elis Rees who weaved his way forward and passed to Mason Thomas who found space and raced towards the line. 4-5 to Newbridge.

Newbridge added another one to make it 4-6, again by the strength of Ioan Herbert who was simply outstanding. Blackwood were now shell shocked after having a commanding lead, but they didn’t give up and pressed towards the line. However, the ball was spilled and Newbridge played advantage. Ollie Penny was screaming for the ball as there was acres of space out wide. The ball moved quickly along the line, but the ball was unfortunately knocked on for a scrum to Blackwood. At this point, Blackwood were no more than 15m away from the try line and were certain to score, but Newbridge continued with the pressure and sent them backwards with some great tackling by Rio Porter. The ball was again spilled and as ever Mad Mac quickly got hold of it and set the backs free who soon moved the ball to Mason who found himself in space to race to the line to make the final score 4-7 to Newbridge.

Tries:

Mason Thomas 3

Ioan Herbert 2

Ollie Penny 1

Evan Maher 1

After the game, Newbridge were invited to go back to back to Blackwood RFC to watch the Jack Thomas Cup games. The Newbridge and Blackwood boys put their rivalry to the side, mixed the teams and continued playing rugby with each other in the cage. They also sat in the stands together and cheered on the Blackwood junior teams, whilst the parents of both teams enjoyed a few cold drinks in the sun. Bliss!