McAvoy vows to bounce back after Blues well-beaten by Farnham

Newbury Blues head coach James McAvoy has said his side will learn from their bruising 47-24 defeat to Farnham on Saturday.

Blues had won both of their first two matches and were top of the Regional 2 South Central table while Farnham were winless following the first two weeks of the campaign, but the visitors paid no attention to the form guide and raced into a 36-0 lead at half time, with Blues temporarily reduced to 14 players midway through the first period after a yellow card.

The hosts were much-improved after the break and got on the scoresheet when Kris Ford powered over almost immediately after the restart before two tries from Jamie Futcher and another from stalwart Josh Winfield salvaged a losing bonus point for Blues, with McAvoy vowing to learn the harsh lessons from a challenging afternoon.

“We were blown away in the first half,” he said.

“I don’t think we’ve played a side that physical and well-organised for around a year-and-a-half.

“In the second half, we proved that we could match a very strong Farnham side physically and then we were able to assert our authority on the game.

“There was no hairdryer treatment, but we had to ask ourselves if we were proud of what we were putting out.

“We’ll learn from it and look to bounce back at the weekend, I’m positive the players will respond.”