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Crewe & Nantwich starting to look like promotion contenders after another stunning away win

Crewe & Nantwich starting to look like promotion contenders after another stunning away win

nick price13 Nov 2017 - 08:22
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Newcastle (Staffs) RUFC 12 – 51 Crewe & Nantwich RUFC

Crewe & Nantwich cemented their place in 2nd spot of RFU Midlands 2 West (North) Division on Saturday with a stunning away win by 51 -12 at local rivals Newcastle (Staffs).

The game was less than 5 minutes old when Crewe’s reliable work horse, prop forward, Ricky Evans capitalised on a messy line out, five meters out to charge over the Newcastle try line to put Crewe 5 – 0 up. Jim Creighton couldn’t extend the lead further when he missed with his conversion kick.

Crewe looked the hungrier of the two sides as they formed attack after attack, prop forward Chris Sproston and second row pairing Travis Mitchell and Joe Telfer all making breaks and running the hard yards into the Newcastle twenty two meter area. And it was Telfer who scored Crewe’s second try of the afternoon after 15 minutes when he made a short burst out of a rolling maul in the corner to touch down much to the visiting fans delight. His effort was converted by Creighton’s kick to extend Crewe’s lead to 12 – 0.

Crewe were in a dominant mood and from the re-start, wave after wave of attacks and line breaks were made, but much to the frustration of the coaching team and visiting spectators, these all too often ended and came to nothing due to poor decision making, misplaced passes or handling errors.

Still, they extended their lead to 15 – 0 on the 35 minute mark when Jim Creighton slotted home a 25 meter penalty.

The home team to their credit, rather than letting their heads drop, rallied to score a try in the corner which was then converted to make it a half-time score of Newcastle 7 – 15 Crewe & Nantwich. In fairness this score flattered the home team and had it not been for a series of mistakes and poor decision making from the visitors, then the points difference at the break could and should have been 20 to 30, still Newcastle were in the game and they would be looking to make more of a contest of it in the second half.

Any ambitions of a comeback from the home team were dented when five minutes into the second half, Crewe No.10, Creighton sent a cheeky chip over the Newcastle defensive line and ran through to collect the ball to then off load it to the hands of team mate, the industrious flanker Ali Lang who showed the pursuing Newcastle players a clean pair of heels to cross the line to score Crewe’s third try of the afternoon, which Creighton converted to make it 22 – 7 for Crewe.

Once again the home team rallied and to their credit they forced another error from Crewe, when a kick out of defence was charged down and the Newcastle backs combined to score their second try of the game, which went unconverted. 12 – 22 to Crewe.

This seemed to spur the visitors on as the game began to follow a similar pattern to the first half, with wave after wave of attacks from Crewe into the Newcastle half, the big difference this time was that the decision making was far better and the number of errors were far less. Crewe scored a stunning try with fifty five minutes on the clock, when they won a lineout on the right hand of the pitch before the ball was passed through the hands of all of their backs for Toby Russell-Vick to touch down in the corner for a well worked try, which was duly converted by Creighton 12 – 29 for the visitors and another bonus point secured.

Crewe were in the ascendancy now and to rub salt into their hosts wounds, Creighton slotted home another penalty kick to make it 12 – 32 for the visitors.

The poor decision making and handling errors of Crewe’s first half performance was slowly becoming a distant memory as they now dominated the game with winger Josh McShane breaking through the tired Newcastle defence to score Crewe’s fifth try of the afternoon, which Creighton converted 12 – 39 to Crewe.

The game entered its last five minutes but Crewe were in a relentless mood as the ball was passed through hands of forwards and backs alike for skipper Toby Russell-Vick to score a try once again in the corner, the conversion was narrowly missed. 12 – 44 for Crewe.

From the restart, Crewe received the Newcastle kick and went on a final counter attack with the team moving in unison deep into the Newcastle half before full back George Colebourne broke through the home team’s floundering defence to score Crewe’s seventh try of the game under the posts which Jim Creighton converted with the last kick of the game, Final score Newcastle (Staffs) 12 – 51 Crewe & Nantwich.

Crewe Head Coach, Peter Allen said, “From our perspective, it was a tale of two halves in terms of the quality of our performance. In the first half we created chance after chance but frustratingly, we didn’t capitalise from our dominance due to poor decision making and handling errors. Second half we managed to sort those aspects out and scored 39 points and we could and should have scored a similar amount of points in that first half. Still, this is another bonus point win and we have a cup game next week before returning to league action the week after at home and in good shape”.

Man of the match was Crewe lock, Joe Telfer.

On Saturday Crewe & Nantwich RUFC have tricky tie away at Droitwich RFC in the 4th Round of the RFU Intermediate Cup.

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