Blues have a platform to work on

Newbury made it maximum points with a win against Beaconsfield

NEWBURY Blues head coach Paul Archer said his side’s perfect start to the season has given them a base to work on.

Blues made it six wins from six – including a sixth consecutive try bonus point – as they beat Beaconsfield 33-0 at Monks Lane.

The five points maintains Newbury’s position at the top of South West 1 East with 30 points from their opening six games.

Beaconsfield battled hard and held Archer’s side to a 16-0 lead at half-time.

Archer said: “I thought we made it tough for ourselves. We had more than enough opportunities to make the game safe in the first half.

“The conditions weren’t fantastic, but we needed to play the ball wide in order to score the tries.

“We spoke about being more accurate at half-time, everyone was confident and eventually we executed the game plan.”

Blues came out stronger in the second-half and, after Beaconsfield were reduced to 14 men, the home side scored three more tries to secure an extra point.

“That’s the great thing,” Archer said. “If we can hold on for 65 to 70 minutes, we know we can bring it out and score.

“To score a number of tries in the final quarter of the game – when we really needed it – was very pleasing.

“I thought our defence was excellent and we never looked in trouble in the game so it was good to keep a clean sheet.”

Blues now have a weekend off before travelling to Chippenham on October 20 and Archer is pleased to have a platform to work on going forward.

He said: “It gives us that base to work on and if we don’t kick on now then we’ll lose a platform that we have built.

“It’s a good start, but we need to know how we improve and move forward from here.”