Newbold welcomed back into the fold Eddie Allen and also saw the return to the team a fit again Josh Cooke as they entertained Whitchurch but It turned out to be a bad day at the office for the Bold. Writes Phil Fereday.
Whitchurch with the wind at their backs soon set out their intentions and ponded away at the Newbold line but the Bold defence to a man were up to it and kept the visitor’s out .After 10 mins of play Newbold turned defence into attack and it was then their turn to lay siege on the Whitchurch line .The dominant Bold scrum came close with 2 pushover scrums attempts but finally had to settle for a Dan Obrien penalty 3-0 to the home side. Unfortunately, this score come at a cost of losing No 8 Sam Thompson to a leg injury. The visitors were the next to score after 30 mins with a try in the corner 3-5. Just when it seemed Newbold had held out to be able to regroup at half time Whitchurch slipped in to score a converted try to make it 3-12 at the half time whistle.
Newbold started the second half with the elements in their favour and the expectations of the home crowd to be able to reverse the score line but after 60 mins of play it was Whitchurch once again scoring a converted try 3-19. It seemed the harder Newbold tried nothing seemed to work to break through the visitor’s defence and after 75mins against the run of play Whitchurch scored an unconverted try 3-24 .Finally Newbold pieced together a break thorough with some great handling from Josh Cooke and James McGill to Oisin McKenna who dive in at the corner to score which was converted by Dan Obrien 10-24 . From the kick off with only injury time to play the Bold went seeking a score to get a bonus point but any chance of a losing bonus point was snatched away with the last play of the game with Whitchurch scoring an unconverted try in the corner 10-29. There had been some fine individual performances from the Bold Tom Dixon being the notable stand out both in the line out and tackle count but the team effort for some reason was disjointed.
