Newent produced what was, by common consent, their best performance of the season to overcome Edwardians 44-7, writes Simon Barker.

The Birmingham side, on their first visit to The Rec, have been in a rich vein of form themselves and are clearly a good side with strong set pieces and dangerous runners – but on this occasion they couldn’t match the pace, precision and cohesion of a Newent team playing at the top of their game.

There was a surprise starter in Newent’s colours, with James Dean returning for his first game since April 2022.

The scrum half showed not the slightest sign of rustiness, his passing and kicking game being as sharp as ever.

There were first appearances of the year for Dean’s old mucker George Phelps, as back row replacement, and Ethan Allen, as front row replacement.

Newent showed their intent from the kick-off, with Doug Long sparking a multi-phased attack featuring a line break from Will Hartland.

This didn’t yield a try, but Edwardians were pressured into conceding a penalty on their 22 which Tom Webb kicked to open the scoring.

The visitors responded immediately, a break from full back Ciaran Hughes taking play into Newent’s 22 where the hosts infringed 15m out.

Edwardians opted to tap and go, but the Newent defence stood firm and turned the ball over to clear the danger.

Penalties awarded against Edwardians soon had Newent back in their 22, where line-out possession was moved infield to Ben Vincent running a hard line and the No 8 broke a couple of tackles to touchdown for the opening try, converted by Tom Webb.

The second try followed in short order, again from a penalty line-out in the Edwardians 22.

This time the pack mauled towards the line and after a couple of pick and goes crossed it, Leo Oakey claiming the touchdown. Webb’s conversion was off target on this occasion.

The third try wasn’t far behind, Adrian Connelly crossing on the left-wing to finish a slick handling move which involved all the backs. Webb added the difficult conversion, to increase the lead to 22-0 with the game still in its first quarter.

Edwardians picked themselves off the floor and launched a prolonged attack, but were denied a try by a superb tackle into touch from Will Tanner deep in ‘Cauldron Corner’.

A break from Jim Hartland took Newent back into the visitors’ 22, but the Edwardians defence was resolute and Kyle Towers was held up over the line.

Eventually a five metre scrum provided the platform for the bonus point try.

As Newent’s pack edged forward, James Dean feinted to pass to the open side, but switched to the blind side where Webb was lurking in a bit of space.

The fly half stepped a couple of opponents before touching down. His missed conversion was the signal for the referee to blow for half-time, with Newent leading 27-0.

Whatever was said during the interval in the Edwardians huddle had the desired effect, for the visitors started the second half strongly and soon had points on the board.

From a five-metre penalty line-out their pack mauled towards the line and hooker Jack Lea, who was prominent in the loose all afternoon, crashed over for the try.

Ciaran Hughes added a good conversion to reduce the deficit to 27-7.

Newent were quick to extinguish hopes of a comeback, however, as they scored an exquisite try to regain the initiative. From a scrum on halfway, Webb delivered a perfectly-weighted cross-kick, straight from the Antoine Dupont playbook, into the hands of Adrian Connelly on the left-wing.

Without breaking stride, Connelly sold the sweetest of dummies to two would-be tacklers and sprinted away to touch down behind the posts. Webb converted for 34-7.

Arguably, the hosts’ final touchdown was an even stronger try of the season contender.

Every player, forward and back alike, appeared to handle the ball in a multi-phased attack which swept from right to left and ended with Connelly popping up on the ‘wrong’ wing to finish in the right-hand corner for his hat-trick try.

Webb converted from the touchline to take Newent over 40 points.

With the game only just into the final quarter there was potential for the floodgates to open, but to the credit of Edwardians they continued to run the ball when in possession and defend strongly.

Doug Long made a try-saving tackle to deny a score for Edwardians’s winger Ben Cooper, a dangerous runner, whilst at the other end of the pitch a superb cover tackle prevented Connelly from adding to his try total and replacement prop Ethan Allen was adjudged to have been held when over the line.

It was another replacement, George Phelps, who started the sequence of play which led to Newent’s final score by winning a penalty with a trademark jackal.

This enabled the hosts to work their way back upfield and when Edwardians conceded another penalty 25m out Tom Webb stepped up to slot the three points.

All that was left was for Newent to secure the restart and kick to touch to close out the game.

Final score: Newent 44 Edwardians 7

Newent: D Long; K Towers, N Brooks, W Hartland (capt.), A Connelly; T Webb, J Dean; T Woodman, W Tanner, E White; Jk Devries, J Marshall; J Hartland, B Vincent (capt), L Oakey.

Replacements: E Allen, Jd Devries, G Phelps.

Newent scorers:

Tries: B Vincent, L Oakey, A Connelly (3), T Webb.

Con: T Webb (4).

Pen: T Webb (2)