Monday 27 April 2026 09:25
Excellent Season Ends in Disappointment for Newport
A large crowd gathered at the Old Showground in glorious sunshine to witness
Newport’s quest to return to National 2 in the first round of the newly reinstated
Promotion Play-Offs but sadly an out of character lacklustre first half performance
saw them go in at half time in a perilous situation at 0 – 26 with the game seemingly
well beyond them.
Stourbridge had been well organised defensively and were clinical in finishing off
their scoring opportunities whilst exploiting some of Newport’s defensive frailties.
Nothing short of a miracle would be required for Newport to turn this one around.
The slope is always worth around ten but could Port make it worth twenty-six?
They gave it a valiant effort but just fell short against a Stourbridge side who were
well worth their victory and will now travel to Topsham for the semi-final next
Saturday.
As could probably be expected there was a cagey start from both teams, keen not to
concede easy points early on but with Newport’s line out mis-firing it was the visitors
who gained momentum and after winning a scrum penalty crossed for the first score
following a well-constructed drive from the resultant line around seven metres out.
The conversion drifted wide from a tight angle so the damage was limited to five
points with nine minutes played.
Newport hadn’t really had a sniff so far and were fortunate when a neat Stour move
split the home defence wide open only to be pulled back for a forward pass. Ollie
Bird then hit on a great line but Newport were unable to turn the position into points.
Newport were far from their best and struggling to put anything meaningful together
but at least twenty minutes had now passed with no further setbacks.
Uluaki Kale, returned from his exploits in Romania, was then yellow-carded for a
high tackle before Stour forced a goal-line drop out that paid immediate dividends,
muscling through some poor tackling to score by the posts, conversion good
stretching their advantage to 0 – 12 after twenty-eight minutes.
Worse was to come as more weak tackling let them in for another but yet more
pressure was relieved when George Perkins and Charlie Pugh combined to win a
turnover penalty in a dangerous position. Newport then looked dangerous in attack,
probably for the first time in the match but when their attack broke down twenty
metres out Stour hacked on several times and won the race to touchdown under the
Newport posts that gave them their half time lead of 0 – 26 which would surely be
unassailable.
With the re-start the game took a turn with a noticeable shift in momentum as with
nothing to lose Newport threw everything at it Jake Reynolds racing over in the left-
hand corner and Jack Ingram, on his 50 th cap, adding an excellent conversion to
begin what might be an improbable comeback at 7 – 26. Spearheaded by skipper
Ricky Bailey, who made several incisive breaks meant Newport had their chances
for sure but a combination of wrong choices and a cruel bounce that denied Benny
Elliot perhaps summed up why this wasn’t going to be Newport’s day.
As the last quarter approached Newport began to dominate and on sixty-three
minutes Jake Goulson was driven over from short range, Elliot tacking on the extras
to make it 14 – 26 but just as the door appeared to be opening Stour slammed it shut
in their faces with a try in the corner to extend their lead to 14 – 31 but Newport stuck
at it and despite Tim Waqadau’s yellow card more dominance saw John Tuia wriggle
through to add a third try, Elliot’s conversion attempt brushing the upright and going
wide but at 19 – 31 they were still within two scores but running out of time.
Home hearts were then lifted when following Elliot’s penalty to eight metres out a
clever move at the front of the line saw Chris Taylor go over and with Elliot’s
conversion proving good made it 26 – 31 with seven minutes left on the clock but just
as Newport dared to dream Stour wrapped it up with a try in the right-hand corner
that made it 26 – 36 at the final whistle.
True, this was a disappointing way to end what has been a fantastic season but it
has been one of growth and development where virtually half the team are still
teenagers and will have learned a great deal from this experience.
Much of this can be put down to Director of Rugby, Steve Dolphin, who has guided
and overseen this development across all teams and to the coaching team led so
admirably by Head Coach Craig Ingram. There is much to look forward to and we
can’t wait to see this team back in action next September where we will doubtless
make further steps in the right direction.