Shropshire Star

Brilliant Newport turn on the style

Director of rugby Chris Wilde was left purring with delight after a stunning opening-day display from Newport.

Published

Newport made a breathtaking return to level five of the national set-up and the re-titled Midlands Premier as they swept to an eye-catching 76-24 victory at Lichfield.

A devastating first-half display saw Newport power into a 50-12 lead with Wilde fulsome in his praise.

“In all my 30 years of involvement with the club, either as a player, manager or just a spectator rarely have I seen such an impressive display as that which we produced in the first half,” said Wilde.

“It was simply breathtaking and just reward for all the effort that has gone in during the summer bringing the right players to the club, the coaching that has gone on in the close season and, of course, the efforts and commitment of the players.”

Newport’s first-half showing oozed quality, class and physicality. The visitors were into their stride immediately when Monty Maule found touch with a raking kick to the Lichfield 22.

The hosts won their line out but saw the ball turned, Henry Vaka, Kirk Robinson, Morgan and Ash Paterson all handling before the latter offloaded to skipper Tom Cowell who crashed over a try which was converted by Liam Holder.

Newport’s forwards drove into Lichfield territory from the restart and after a series of phases Maule broke and fed the ball inside to the supporting Paterson to add the second score after just four minutes, Holder again converting to make it 14-0.

Lichfield launched a menacing-looking attack before it was intercepted and spun left where Jason Francis raced in at the corner for the first of what proved to be an impressive hat-trick.

The hosts hit back with a converted score before Holder was yellow-carded for a tip tackle. But despite being down to 14 for 10 minutes, Newport continued the onslaught with Paterson adding a penalty and converting a second Cowell try to make it 29-7.

The visitors increased their lead further when Oli Buckley added a fifth try that was converted by the returning Holder.

There was some brief respite for Lichfield when they benefitted from a scrappy line out and pounced on the loose ball to score and reduce the arrears to 36-12.

Francis then burst through a gap and produced a superb offload to send the impressive Perry under the posts. Holder again landed the extras.

The 50 was up by half-time when Dave Archer finished another flowing move with a try that Holder again converted.

The second period was never going to live up to the excitement of the first and what must have been a shell-shocked Lichfield were first to get themselves on the scoresheet.

Newport responded with a well-controlled pushover try for Kirk Robinson, which was converted, followed by a lovely chip over the defence from Maule that was collected on the full by Francis to score out wide.

A converted try from Paterson made it 69-17 before Francis sprinted 70-odd metres to complete his hat-trick.

Lichfield added the final points of the day to make it 76-24.