Stags centre of attention as Newbury Blues frozen off
Newbury Stags beat the weather on Saturday, but couldn't do the double over Beaconsfield II.
Newbury Blues’ away fixture at Farnham was frozen off, meaning all eyes turned to Stags for the weekend’s rugby action.
Stags welcomed several players back from University on their Christmas Holidays including Dillon Benson, Seb Burgess, Ben Kaesser, Hayden Beal, Charlie Lewis and Christian Collett.
A couple of players made their returns to playing rugby after lengthy injury breaks, Kris Ford, Harry Waye-Branch.
Stags kicked off on a bitterly cold afternoon, with the pitch in good condition considering the weather.
Stags had chances to score in the first half, but poor decisions and mistakes kept them scoreless and saw them unrewarded for some periods of good rugby.
Beaconsfield on the other hand took their chances and ended up 19-0 ahead at the break, scoring 3 tries.
Stags put a better performance together in the second half after going 24-0 down.
They got on the score sheet after some good rugby, rewarded with a great try from Man of the Match George Stevens.
George Shakespeare added the conversion to make it 7-24
Stags had the better of the next 15 minutes but were unable to add to their score.
Beaconsfield broke the deadlock by scoring their fifth try for 7-29.
Stags kept fighting though, and were rewarded when Jamal Watson broke through to score.
Shakespeare again converted for 14-29, although soon after Beaconsfield kicked a penalty for 14-32.
Two minutes later Beaconsfield got their sixth try for 14-37, but Stags didn’t give up and with the last play of the match Will Osborne broke through several tackles to get over and score.
Shakespeare’s conversion brought the final whistle, with the score 21-37.
Stags deserved more from this game but just lacked the cutting edge and cohesion in Beaconsfield’s 22, meaning they didn’t get the reward for some good rugby.
They still sit second bottom of the league on sixteen points, above Thatcham who have -11.
They travel to Slough on Saturday before facing Thatcham at home a week later.
Newbury Blues’ rearranged clash with Farnham looks set for January 25th.
They host Chobham this Saturday and travel to Bournemouth a week afterwards.
