Newbury Blues skipper Dan Thorne pleased with response during win over Beaconsfield at Monks Lane

Newbury Blues captain Dan Thorne praised the efforts from his teammates as they returned to winning ways in South West 1 East with a 33-7 victory over Beaconsfield.

Thorne, along with Toby Thorne, Tommy Martin, Harry Waye-Branch and James Macaulay all scored tries for Newbury as the recorded a bonus-point win.

Speaking after the game, the Blues skipper was happy they put the wrongs right after defeat to Banbury the previous week.

“It was pretty pleasing, we had a few things to work on after the Banbury game and one of them was managing things when playing into the wind and we did that.

“We had a much better kick chase and that built us the platform going forward and we were able to control the ball for large periods of the first-half.

“Going 14-0 was promising and if we’re being critical then we probably could have had more with the chances we had, but we improved on this in the second-half.”

The home side had a commanding lead at the interval and they stretched that in the second-period, with Thorne admitting that Newbury had to stay patient.

“We knew if we managed the territory in the second-half then the scores would come and we weren’t worried, we just wanted the opponent out of our half.

“It was tough towards the end, but our defensive sets were really strong and our effort levels in defence were really high.”

The fixture tied in with the club celebrating 25 years of rugby at Monks Lane and Thorne was thrilled to see a good crowd.

“In the last two games, we have had two strong crowds and it’s been awesome because we love playing here.”