A dramatic late drop goal by Tomasi Tanumi sealed a sensational victory for Newport against National Division Three Midlands leaders Ampthill.

Fijian Tanumi struck inside the final two minutes to earn the Forton Road men a 16-14 success against their high-flying visitors.

It represented a massive turnaround in fortunes for the Shropshire side, who had been annihilated 79-13 at Luton just a week earlier.

“Ampthill have had a fair amount of money poured into them, but they couldn’t overcome us,” said Newport’s delighted director of rugby Ray Price.

“The lads really dug deep and they deserved their win. Good old Tomo did the business with a 45-yard drop goal and they were gutted, but we were thrilled of course.

“It says an awful lot for the coach Ian Bletcher and the work he has done with them in the last week after the previous Saturday’s result.”

The away side had led for much of the afternoon, though a Michael Woodhouse try had kept Newport in contention.

Tanumi converted that and had also kicked a penalty, and he then put away another three-pointer midway through the second half to briefly give his side a 13-11 lead.

But Ampthill won a penalty of their own inside a minute to move one point ahead once again and set up a thrilling finish.

Newport piled on the pressure and finally found a way through when Tanumi received the ball just inside his own half on the right-hand side and went for the speculative and decisive drop goal.

The result was enough to lift them above Kettering and out of the bottom two positions in the league.

Luctonians made it two wins in a row as they defeated Bromsgrove 32-10 at Mortimer Park.

It was a big scalp for the mid-table Lucs, against a side who are in contention at the top end of the table.

The Herefordshire side have now won both games since going down at home to Ampthill last month.

Hereford are also in the middle of the table after their latest setback, an 8-0 defeat away at Longton.