Green Army defeated in local derby
Report and Pictures by Roger Pike
Newent 16 Lydney 28
The Severnsiders fielded another changed but strong side to attempt the double over local rivals Newent having already won the home fixture. Welcoming back Riley Scriven in the back row, a real talent for the future and Captain John Barker back in the pack beefed up the forwards, with the tough centre Joe McClean back in Phil Cowburn started on the bench showing the strength of the Lydney side. The hosts although languishing near the wrong end of the table also fielded a strong and experienced team with the like of Sam Wilkes were clearly up for the battle in their efforts to climb the table. The game was always going to start a tight, edgy affair and both sides had a penalty on the board within a few minutes, first from Tom Webb and the Severnsiders responding from Tony Wicks for 3 – 3. Lydney looked the stronger but numerous errors and also some good disrupting play from the hosts kept the score unchanged on the half hour. Lydney then lost flanker Harry Brown to injury, replaced by another promising Lydney youngster breaking into the 1st team in Jack Knox. The game changer came nearing the end of 40 minutes when from some foul play saw the Official surprisingly sin bin Lydney’s Riley Scriven but red card the offending Newent player. From the resulting penalty Wicks knocked over the kick for 3 – 6. A further penalty from Wicks soon followed and right on half time Newent had a similar chance from Webb to make it 6 – 9 at the break
Lydney started the second half strongly looking to put the game out of site against 14 players but the hosts showed major resilience and earned a penalty from which Tom Webb tied the scores. The visitors immediately responded to get back ahead in the game playing now in the Newent half and a good move across the speedy backs sees a scoring opportunity ended with a side entry offence to kill the ball saw another yellow card for the hosts. The pressure was then relentless, Newent did their best to disrupt the Severnsiders play and stop the flow but a good break from centre Joe McClean was ended just short however outside centre Phil Cowburn, off the bench, was on hand to gather and power over, Wicks converts for 9 – 16. Newent then had a strange kick off which went direct to Severnsiders backs and centre McClean powered his way downfield to score and put Lydney out of sight at 9 – 21. To give the hosts credit even with this set back they battled away, regaining possession from another poor Lydney line out the 14 players managed a try and conversion from Tom Webb to get them back into bonus point territory at 16 – 21. This shook the Severnsiders back into life and with a man down the Hosts were always vulnerable out wide. A Newent scrum saw the ball squirt out which Lydney scrum half Alex Peel picked up and a strong run was ended short however the offload was accepted by Conal Mills and with help of Riley Scriven drove over the line to end any hope for the hosts. Wicks then added the extras and the score moved on to 16 – 28. With conditions now very dark the Official played another 8 minutes of injury time but the score remained unchanged and another win for the Severnsiders in their promotion push. For the hosts the score probably did not reflect the effort they put in but when you are at the wrong end of the table these things tend to happen.
Coach Dave Emery commented ‘ this was always going to be a ‘banana skin’ game, we are on a winning streak but against a side battling for survival and the added spice of a local derby means anything can happen. For sure we were far from our best but ground out a workmanlike performance to eventually win the game. You could not fault the hosts sprit and commitment, they were using every tactic to disrupt the breakdown and stop any flow or momentum we tried to put into the game. We have our win, enough said, so move on to the Newton Abbot game who we beat away earlier in the season, so another double would be good next week’.
