Tuesday 25 November 2025 11:05
Following their “statement” win at Stourbridge last time out Newport ran the show from start to finish against a Nuneaton side who are having a torrid time so far this season and Saturday saw no change in their fortunes as they remain winless from their nine outings thus far.
When your pack is shunted back at scrum and maul time, often by as much as twenty metres, then there is little hope for any team that is forced to play almost the entire game on the back foot and Newport took full advantage of their clear superiority up front. That said Nuneaton stuck at it right to the end and deserved their two scores that, sadly for them, don’t bring any reward in terms of league points so they remain firmly rooted to the bottom.
Callum Cload came into the side on the left wing, and what a game he had, registering a first half hat-trick, Joe Parkin made his long-awaited start in the nine jersey whilst in the pack Callum Bradbury returned from injury and Luke Kendall was chosen to start. Sam Gibson, Tom Pick and Billy Dinning made up the bench.
Newport made the perfect start when Cload collected a Nuns kick on his own twenty-two, stepped a couple of defenders before chipping over the last man and collecting his own kick for a fine individual score and with Benny Elliot striking the post with his conversion attempt they had a lead of 5 – 0 after just four minutes. It lasted barely a minute though as Newport spilled the re-start and Ryan Isles strolled in under the posts far too easily with James Astin converting to put Nuns ahead 5 – 7 but that was as good as it was going to get for the hapless visitors as Newport kicked into gear resulting in an opening half, up the hill, in which they were to register eight tries.
Elliot put a scrum penalty into the corner where Mike Adams was driven over for the first of his three. George Perkins made a typical barrelling run up the left touchline before Chris Taylor and John Tuia combined well before sending Elliot Dolphin in for the third. Cload then showed great pace to go in from fifty metres, four try bonus point secured in the process.
There was then a temporary calm before a Ricky Bailey break from deep resulted in space for Cload who again sped in from half-way. Another Bailey break then took Port into the Nuns twenty-two but as he veered away from support runners he was swallowed up fifteen out from the posts. No matter, good driving play from Tom Clarke and Bradbury set up more pressure and Bailey glided in for the next score. There was worse to come for the visitors when Newport collected the Nuns re-start, all of which, and there were plenty of them during the afternoon, seemed to end up in the safe hands of Taylor. The attacking was slick and precise allowing Charlie Gamble to sprint away for the next before Parkin got the last of the half sniping round the fringes. Elliot was able to add every conversion after his early miss and Newport, dominant in all aspects, led 54 – 7 at the break.
Gibson, Pick and Dinning all entered the fray for the second half before yet another driving scrum saw Parkin break right to feed Dinning who put Gamble in for the first score of the second period after forty-eight minutes, Adams was then driven over for another on fifty-four and Dinning for the eleventh of the day on fifty-seven. Taylor then touched down from an advancing scrum on sixty-three before Adams completed his hat-trick from another well executed catch and drive so it was now 85 – 7 going into the last fifteen minutes and a score of 100+ looking a distinct possibility but it was Nuns who struck next, Rhys Astin driving over by the posts after multiple tight phases on the Newport line, James Astin’s conversion getting the visitors into double figures at 85 – 14 with sixty-nine minutes played.
Elliot then made a fine break before Dinning again was the provider putting Gamble in for his third before scoring himself down the right. Elliot had added five more conversions to the tally to make it 99 – 14 with two minutes remaining but Nuns won possession and held onto it for long enough before booting it out thus avoiding the dreaded three figures.
An emphatic result and performance no doubt that produced fifteen tries for Newport, a result that keeps them in second spot but on the same points as Bournville who have a marginally superior points difference.
Newport now enter a critical part of the season with four tough games to take them into the Christmas break. Next Saturday they have a tasty trip to 6th placed Bridgnorth followed by Bournville (1st – Home), Bromsgrove (3rd -Away) and the Newent (4th – Home) Results from these games will doubtless have a huge bearing on Newport’s promotion credentials and as the injury list eases somewhat they should be able to navigate these fixtures at full or near to full strength.
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