Newport urged to stay focused in search of win

The Old Showground outfit have come out on the wrong side of their two fixtures to date with last weekend’s 33-29 loss at Chester especially frustrating for Adams.

A disappointing first-half display saw Newport trail 22-5 at the break and, although they dominated the second half, they couldn’t complete the rescue act.

“We ran out of time at the end but we had given ourselves too much to do,” said Adams. “Another five minutes and we win that game because they were out on their feet.

“We outscored them five tries to four but we gave them three of their tries with schoolboy errors.

“We trailed 22-5 at half-time but we dominated the second half.

“We got ourselves back in it second half but then gave another sloppy try away that ultimately cost us the game. It’s so frustrating because when we were on it we played some really good stuff and scored some good tries.

“We had identified that Chester play a narrow defence and we scored a good try after two minutes when we got the ball wide and played with width. But we never went there again until the second half.

“The forwards have to get on script with how we want to play. It’s not all about brawn, there is a lot of speed and precision to how we want to play.”

Ethan Harley (two), Timoci Waqadau, Charles Robinson and Lewis Sturgess scored Newport’s tries, with George Castledine adding two conversions.

Adams is now looking for a positibe response this weekend.

“It makes this weekend’s game at Hornets harder because we need to come away from there with a win,” he said.

“Saturday was a game we could and should have won but we came away with two points.

“We know from last year that if you make mistakes at this level then you get punished. It’s so frustrating. We have got to be switched on all 80 minutes, not for 40 or 60 minutes.”