RUGBY PICTURES: Newbold in top-of-the-table clash with league leaders

Pictures by Steve Smith, report by Sean O'Brien

Midlands 1 West: Bromsgrove 57 Newbold 0

Top of the table Bromsgrove absolutely hammered second placed Newbold on Saturday, writes Sean O'Brien.

Newbold defended well in the first 20 minutes but there’s not much else to write about from a Newbold perspective.

Bromsgrove however were on fire. A big front five, excellent number eight, centre, winger and full-back in particular gave Newbold a torrid time. The scrums were a nightmare and cost us a couple of scores from pushovers. Bromsgrove went for the jugular from the outset.

From shortened lineouts they shifted the ball into midfield where a house with a number one on its back was thrown into Newbold’s backs. The defence was then retreating, Bromsgrove were on the front foot and they piled forward relentlessly, forwards and backs in unison, and in the end scoring at will.

It was 19-0 at half time, and Newbold were up for the battle for the second forty.

The players put in decent enough shift. Skipper Ben Thompson kept going and kept leading until the end. The last ten minutes were disappointing because players heads did go down (mine went down by about 50 minutes) but ‘Bold will accept that to a man, they were up against a better team.

Lloyd Warner, retired last year and on coaching duties for the day, ended up with physio Rich Welsby’s boots on and was called upon to play when Dan O’Brien discovered a hamstring in the warm up. Lloyd looked fitter than when he was playing and chase no fewer shadows that the rest of the team when he got on.

Newbold beat Bromsgrove at home around three or four months ago. How have our performances gone in one direction whilst the likes of Bromsgrove have grown and grown?

On another note it was great to see such a young referee given the reins for what was (meant to be) a top of the table close encounter. He was a fresh-faced pup at best but handled the occasion well.

It’s cathartic to write honestly about the gap in class between the teams on the day, but it’d be masochistic to describe all the tries. So I won’t. (There were lots of them and they were good).

To cap off a bad day at the office the changing rooms at Bromsgrove were broken into and players’ beer money was stolen so some players couldn’t even drink to forget.

We’ve dished out a few thrashings ourselves this season so we’ll remain dignified in (heavy) defeat, and we’ll hope for better in the weeks to come. We are still in great shape for a play-off. Onwards and upwards then.