Rugby Union
Victory sees Newbold close gap at the top

Newbold 23 Cheltenham 15

Midlands Two West (South)

NEWBOLD moved to within three points of leaders Barkers Butts thanks to a hard fought success against bottom of the table Cheltenham on Saturday.

With the leaders losing 9-8 against Berkswell and Balsall, second placed Newbold took advantage to close the gap with nine games of the season remaining.

Many would have expected Saturday’s result to be a formality given the two side’s league positions and the opening few minutes of the contest appeared to confirm those thoughts.

Ed Scott made good ground from the kick-off before kicking long for Phil Reed to gather and touch down but the referee deemed he had knocked on and awarded Cheltenham a five-metre scrum.

Tim Murphy stole the ball against the head and a great drive from Newbold’s scrum gave Danny Facer the momentum to touch down inside three minutes.

A penalty got Cheltenham on the board before they stunned their hosts by taking the lead with an unconverted try.

Newbold’s play continued to be disjointed and every forward move was spoilt by either dropping or knocking the ball on.

Cheltenham continued to capitalise on Newbold’s mistakes and went further ahead with a converted try before both sides saw their props receive yellow cards.

Newbold won a penalty shortly before the interval which Bond successfully kicked but they still went in 15-8 behind at the break.

It did not take them long to draw level in the second half with Bond converting Ben Harrison’s try but Cheltenham continued to impress despite their lowly position.

Tom Clarke had to make a try saving tackle to keep the scores level before Bond kicked another penalty against the run of play to put Newbold ahead.

The visitors began to become frustrated, falling out with the referee who penalised them for their own indisciplines and that allowed Newbold to press forward again.

They finally secured the victory when Facer broke free to score a well taken unconverted try.

Newbold take a break from league action on Saturday when they travel to Leamington in the first round of the Warwickshire Cup.