Fixture

The Magpies suffered last play heartbreak for the second week on the trot with a 25-26 defeat to New Dock Stars on Saturday afternoon. A losing bonus point was little compensation for the disappointment of a defeat which sees Tumble slip to eighth position in the league. The Magpies had plenty of territory and possession early on and took the lead with a well struck penalty from outside half Steven Hewitt on 6 minutes. Following the score New Dock started to establish a foothold in the game and missed a penalty attempt of their own for an infringement at a scrum. Tumble showed promise with some hard running from the likes of centre Sam Davies, but all too frequently the runner had a lack of support and the ball was surrendered. On 23 minutes New Dock took the lead when the ball was worked wide to their fullback who stepped his way inside to score a dry just to the left of the posts. The conversion was added to give the visitors a 3-7 lead. Tumble were making mistakes in possession and finding it hard raising their game. As the half wore on the Magpies found themselves deep in the New Dock half. A lineout 10 metres out was taken by second row Ryan Lewis. A driving maul was formed and the Magpies drove over the New Dock line for a well taken try scored by scrum half Iwan Morgan. Hewitt knocked over the conversion to make the score 10-7 to Tumble at half time.

The second half didn't get off to the best start when second row Dion James was sent to the sin bin after being shown a yellow card for unending an opponent in the tackle. The punishment did look a little harsh as the New Dock player appeared to jump into the tackle meaning his momentum took him up into the air and made the situation look worse than it was. With the Magpies attacking near the halfway a pass was intercepted by the New Dock centre who fed the ball out to their fill back for his second try of the game. The conversion was missed but with only three minutes of the half played Tumble found themselves 10-12 down. Tumble were trying to play but passed were loose and they were failing to utilise the talented runners in the outside backs. A try looked a certainty on 46 minutes but a fumble from centre Kian O'Reilly saw the ball knocked on with the try line in touching distance. A substitution saw the return from injury of Club captain Steffan Price with O'Reilly switched to the wing, from where he made a number of dangerous breaks with his illusive running style. Again, Tumble went close and with a two man overlap the New Dock wing clearly knocked the ball on from a Dafydd Griffiths pass. The referee showed the yellow card and Hewitt converted the resultant penalty to close the gap to 13-14 but many thought that the penalty try should have been awarded seeing that Tumble had a two man overlap with Steffan Owen and the pacey O’Reilly unmarked only 15 metres from the try line. On 64 minutes the Magpies retook the lead when a break from the halfway saw the ball passed to lightening full back Dafydd Thomas who sprinted in from 35 metres. The conversion attempt from Hewitt went wide from a narrow angle on the right-hand touchline, 18-12 to Tumble. Four minutes later it looked even better when replacement hooker Will Roberts dived over from a driving maul. Hewitt successfully converted from a wide angle to make the score 25-12. On the 70-minute mark Tumble brought on replacement number 8 Rhys Jones for his first game for the club in 12 years. Tumble were playing some good stuff looking for that fourth try until another loose pass saw New Dock intercept and their full back go over for his hat trick of tries. The conversion was added and suddenly it was 25-19. New Dock had their tails up and the nerves came over a Magpies side out of the wining habit. The game ended with at least 15 minutes of overtime being played, through penalty advantage after penalty advantage. Brave defence was finally thwarted when the New Dock number 8 went over under the posts. The conversion was added to give the visitors a 25-26 win and break Tumble hearts. Full credit to the visitors who never gave in and secured a great victory at the death.

It's back to the drawing board for Tumble before next week's Division 3 Cup game at St David's RFC. Some good individual performances but we need to cut down our error rate, play with more intensity and try and get the ball out to our pacey outside backs more often. Hopefully our injury list will start to clear in the coming weeks to further strengthen the squad. Onwards and upwards, we look forward to the next game.

A copy of the matchday programme can be found at the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j32H5UrDR_7r9uJ_m7HDSUE6QA5a0FwF/view?usp=sharing

Ymlaen Y Piod