Newick (24) v (34) Seaford 1st XV

The first exchanges occurred in the middle of the park as both sets of forwards felt each other out. It was the Scarlet’s who made the most of their early possession, with Ben Cox kicking for points following a Newick infringement.

For the next 20 minutes the Scarlet’s were dominant. The next points came when Paul Burns drew his man and opened space for Mike Crowley to slink and slither through adding the 1st try. A conversion made the score 10 – 0 which was soon added to, when Chris Burns went over the line, before Cox added further points.

The home side Appeared dazed but were not done; a clever switch of play from their fly half, caught the Seaford defensive line flat footed, resulting in the home side getting over in the corner. The Scarlet’s reasserted their dominance and a good run by winger Scott Voice played in Crowley for his second of the afternoon.

As the half came to a close there was still time for both teams to score, Crowley made it a first half hat-trick and Cox again converted, while Newick found space out wide and ran in their 2nd score.

Seaford went in to the break 31 – 10 up but came out forcing the issue. Newick took advantage and crept back into the game with a converted try. As the back line began to falter it was the pack that came good, demonstrating higher levels of fitness and an improving scrum. New signing Paul Hardwick marshaled the pack beautifully throughout the 80 minutes but they could do little to prevent Newick scoring another converted try.

With the score at 31 – 24 Cox had the opportunity to put the game to bed. He sealed the victory with another fine kick.

Head Coach John Crowley will have much to ponder over the week as the team looks forward to a visit from Holbrook. The second half display showed that there is still much to improve on.

MOM: Paul Hardwick, cracking league debut.