Newbury 11 Tottonians 46 – report
Tottonians kept their title interest alive with a stellar second half performance to blow away a struggling Newbury side with five unanswered tries.
NEWBURY 11 TOTTONIANS 46
Monks Lane, Newbury
Saturday 1st March 2025
Regional 2 South Central – match 19
Report by Keith Searle
Totts kicked off in front of a decent crowd in perfect conditions. Unfortunately the kick did not go 10 metres but Newbury inexplicably hacked the ball on rather than waiting for the scrum restart and a good runs from Tom Tully and Nic Jansen gained Totts a line out 15 metres out.
Bruno Nascimbene peeled off the drive and space opened up for him to drive through the the remaining cover to touch down. The conversion hit the upright. 0-5 after 2 minutes.
Newbury started to gain a foothold in the game through their scrum and got some field position. Totts forced a kick into touch and from the line out, Tully broke three tackles before getting the ball away to Ethan Riley, he offloaded to Leo Tongue who broke a further two tackles to dot down out wide for an unconverted try – 0-10 with 10 minutes gone.
From the restart a high tackle from Totts led to a penalty that Dan Thorne converted for 3-10.
Ten minutes later Totts were pinged for not rolling away and Thorne was successful from the tee again making it 6-10.
With a 9 to 1 first half penalty count against Totts, continuity was proving difficul and the referee’s patience finally ran out and skipper Liam Murphy was sent to the bin although the resulting penalty sailed wide.
Totts dropped out from the 22 and secured the ball. From the second pick and go Harry Dolbear’s box kick was chased by Tongue and his pressure forced the opposition fullback to knock on. Richard Colmer grubbered the ball ahead and chased the ball down thirty metres to slide over and score. He converted his own try for 6-17 with five minutes of the half remaining.
Totts failed to get out of their half from the restart and this culminated in a five metre line out for the home side. The catch and drive was successful with hooker Callum Varrall touching down for an unconverted try, which was the final play of the half as Totts went in 11-17 to the good at the break.
Totts penalty count and Newbury’s scrum dominance had prevented the visitors from getting away from their hosts but this was to completely turn on its head in the second half with the penalty count hugely in Totts favour and the scrum being officiated correctly giving us parity.
The Blues tired and Totts went on to score five unanswered tries.
Early Newbury pressure in the second half was absorbed before they conceded a ruck penalty. Totts kicked for touch and were rewarded with a five metre line out. Rich O’Donnell peeled off the drive to touch down for Totts bonus point try. 11-22 seven minutes into the half.
Totts were now firmly on the front foot and this resulted in a stream of penalties from the Blues finally resulting in two yellow cards in quick succession for the home side. Totts kicked for touch and drove over from five metres out with Liam Murphy at the back to touch down. 11-27 with fifteen minutes remaining.
It was now one way traffic and Totts moved the ball left and right before Kevin Raqio made a half break. Brother Josh was on hand to pick the ball up at the back of the ruck, go through the gap and stretch out to score. Robbie Searle converted 11-34 , 7 minutes to go.
From the restart Newbury mounted an attack but a great hit by Connor Andrews forced a knock on which was fielded by Searle, he fed Tully who darted through the last of the defence to score out wide. 11-39 with four minutes remaining.
From the restart the ball did not travel ten resulting in a scrum to Totts. This resulted in a series of carries from the visitors primarily from Tully and Jansen. Fittingly it was the latter who made the final drive to power over under the posts for the final score. Searle added the extras for a final score of 11-46.
A good day with too many excellent performances to mention. A decent run out before facing league leaders Farnham next week.
TOTTONIANS POINT SCORERS:
1 try – Bruno Nascimbene (sponsored by Mildren Construction)
1 try – Leo Tongue (sponsored by New Forest Architectural Services)
1 try – Rich Colmer
1 try – Rich O’Donnell (sponsored by Causeway Motors)
1 try – Liam Murphy (sponsored by Osman Originals)
1 try – Josh Raqio (sponsored by MJG Mechanical & Electrical)
1 try – Tom Tully (sponsored by Brewpack)
1 try – Nic Jansen (sponsored by Wheelers Travel)
1 conversion – Rich Colmer
2 conversion – Robbie Searle (sponsored by R&M Electrical)
