Drybrooks U14’s visited Newent to play their third encounter of the season. Although evenly contested, the tie was quite physical and resulted in a couple of Drybrook injuries to Jay Fellows and Harry Jones.
Having worked well in attack to score four tries, Drybrook wasted at least two opportunities to win the game missing crucial tackles which resulted in Newent tries.
Playing with their shirts inside out so as not to clash Newent kicked off and started brightly, taking advantage of Drybrooks sleepy start. The kick off was caught by Newents number 8 who made ground into Drybrooks twenty two. Drybrook managed to halt the attack, but recycled ball at the ruck allowed Newents forwards to score the first try which went unconverted.
Drybrook woke up and exerted good pressure in the Newent half. A consistent set of phases at ruck and maul drew in the Newent defence. Jack McLeod took advantage of a gap and burst through from twenty metres to score near the posts. Rohan Parry converted. Drybrook relaxed again and almost immediately Newent retook the lead with their forwards bursting through a poor defence. Again the score went unconverted – 10 points to 7.
A few stern words from their coaches saw Drybrook come to life. Pressure in Newents last third for a sustained period was rewarded when fly half Parry side stepped a number of Newent defenders to score, however Parrys conversion attempt hit the post.
Drybrook played well for the rest of the first half and they turned round 12 points to 10 in the lead.
Early in the second half scores were traded. Drybrooks Jay Fellows carrying a shoulder injury broke the Newent line to score near the posts, Parry converted. Minutes later Newent hit back with their centre breaking through a number of Drybrook defenders. A period of stale midfield play with both sides negating one another’s attacks was broken by Drybrooks Caleb Lloyd who made a surging break from half way to power over under the posts. Again Parry converted. The score now 15 points to 26 in Drybrooks favour.
The last ten minutes for Drybrook was somewhat frantic. Newent were determined to get back on top. Their big number 8 now playing in the centre scored two tries; one was a long arcing run across the field with Drybrooks tacklers floundering he crossed the line and ran in under the posts and the conversion was made; his second try came from the kick off – he caught the ball and ran sixty metres with all of Drbrooks defensive attempts being high, he crossed the line for the winning score as Jarred Field managed to take his legs too late.
Squad: Ben Jones, Caleb Lloyd, Callum Wilson, Harry Jones, Jack Mcleod, Jack Worgan, Jarred Field, Jay Fellows, Josh Kemmett, Kieran Mahoney, Kyran Worgan, Lee Wakefield, Morgan Hancock, Nathan Davies, Rohan Parry, Sam Horton, Tom Pollack