Rugby: Blues for Swanage & Wareham in Newbury setback

SWANAGE & Wareham travelled to Newbury on Saturday, with a weakened team due to holidays and unavailability, which showed in the final result.

The game was played in atrocious conditions as Newbury’s first-team pitch was waterlogged and there was rain throughout.

After just four minutes, Swans’ hooker Chris Tomes was yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on and, from the resulting penalty, a catch-and-drive move enabled the hosts to score a try out wide.

On 12 minutes, Newbury added a second score but, from then on, the Swans put up a valiant period of play. That was until a series of penalties to Newbury put them inside the visitors’ 22, resulting in a try to put Newbury well in the ascendancy after 30 minutes.

The second half for Swans started disastrously as Newbury ran in two tries in the first five minutes to claim a 31-0 advantage.

However, a penalty to Swans after 50 minutes resulted in a series of pick-and-drive moves which enabled visiting prop forward Gary Smith to force his way over the try line. Phil Graves added the conversion.

From there on it was all downhill for the visitors. Whenever the hosts scored the ball went back to Newbury’s forwards from the restart, who powered over the Swans’ defence to ensure an emphatic victory.