Newport (Salop) 32 Bournville 16
The final scoreline may have flattered Newport a little but the result meant that Bournville finished empty-handed for the first time since the opening day of the season.
A burst of two tries in three minutes late on ended Bournville’s hopes of salvaging at least a bonus point and allowed Newport to secure a maximum points win that took them off the foot of the table.
The Old Showground has never been a happy hunting ground for Bournville and miserable weather conditions and a pitch that was heavy after several days of rain meant that running rugby was at a premium.
Bournville had a game plan for the conditions which was kicking deep into the wind in the first-half and trying to force Newport into making errors.
Unfortunately, the early mistakes in each half all came from Bournville and proved costly. Two penalties in the first six minutes allowed Newport captain Connor Adams to kick his side into a 6-0 lead on his 100th appearance for the club.
Jacob Fewtrell was off target with an early penalty kick which would have reduced the deficit and two more scoring opportunities were missed when the ball was knocked on close to the line after Bournville had applied pressure.
With the wind at their backs in the second-half that still appeared a manageable deficit but Newport stretched their lead to 20-0 within ten minutes of the re-start.
Centre Hendry Vaka benefited from a favourable bounce when a kick went astray to cross for the first try and scrum-half Conor Dever nipped in for the second from a close-range attack.
With the match seemingly lost, Bournville played their best rugby in a 20-minute period that got them to within an unconverted try of winning the game.
Fewtrell slotted two penalties when Newport infringed under pressure and replacement wing Alex Evans then slipped a couple of tackles to score a well-taken opportunist try.
Fewtrell added the conversion followed by a third penalty but a crucial line-out was lost from another promising attacking position.
Newport made the most of their own attacking opportunities with first Ricky Bailey then his fellow wing Charlie Gamble finding space to stretch the scoreline out of reach of a losing bonus point.
“We felt like we were in the game at half-time, we weren’t executing exactly how we wanted to,” said Head Coach Matt Price.
“We wanted to pin them back and force them into errors but we gifted them field possession and the ball through our errors.
“There were four penalties in the first five minutes which is a poor way to start the game. But I am pleased with the way that we came back into the game in the second-half.
“We put pressure on them and when we did they were cracking. We need to do that from minute one not minute 60.
“Three of their tries came out of nothing. We have to make our own luck and do our own stuff. When you come to a place like this it’s a simple game plan. You win your set-piece ball, you get set-piece dominant, you pin them in the corners and tell them to win it from 70-80 metres which not many sides in this league will.
“The conditions were the same for both sides. They handled them better, they executed what they wanted to do better than us. It was frustrating for us to not implement our game plan fully. If we had it would have been a much simpler, easier day.
“They have five points, we have nothing and we have got to limit teams around us from doing that.”
Bournville return to Avery Fields on Saturday November 11 with Dings Crusaders, fresh from ending league leaders Luctonians’ unbeaten record, the visitors (2pm).