Pink Day win over North Dorset delights Newbury Blues Rugby head coach James McAvoy

Newbury Blues head coach James McAvoy praised his side after their Pink Day win over North Dorset.

The club’s annual Pink Day raises money for Newbury Cancer Care, and Blues have never lost the fixture.

They continued this trend with a confident 21-10 victory, as Harry Waye-Branch, Ali Magee and Ben Hicks all scored.

“I was really pleased,” said McAvoy.

“The learning is starting to embed now.

“We focussed a bit less on the tactical side in our pre-match chat.

“You can lean into the emotion and the occasion, make sure the boys are in the right space.

“We used an All-Blacks mantra of making sure we leave the shirt in a better place.”

The result puts Blues into eighth, level on points with North Dorset and above on points-difference.

“Against North Dorset defence is going to win you the game,” he said.

“And we were able to keep them out, there were some ridiculously good defensive stands.

“We were good enough to score another two or three tries and get the bonus point.

“That’s something we need to look at, but we have a plan in place.

“It was a good day.”

Blues have just two games left, travelling to fifth placed Petersfield next weekend.

“We beat them at home, so the boys have good self-belief,” he said.

“We are genuinely getting better.

“We have this weekend to rest, and we’ll only train once on the Thursday.

“If we can get points against Petersfield then it won’t come down to the final game.

“Petersfield are similar to North Dorset, but they execute better.

“They have a very good maul game and their tighthead prop is on nearly 20 tries this year.

“They have a few more skills in their locker.

“We’ll keep confidence up going into next week.”