REGIONAL 2 TRIBUTE SOUTH WEST
Newton Abbot RFC 33 Truro 7
NEWTON Abbot All Whites picked up a second win of the Regional 2 Tribute South West campaign on Saturday, January 11 to grasp “A really good start to the year of 2025” in the words of Director of Rugby Mike Saxton.
Fellow strugglers Truro were the visitors at Rackerhayes and a dominant display from start to finish was evidence that “the players just had a different attitude” in their search for survival.
Hooker Jack Sealey crossed the white line twice for Newton and there were also tries for captain George Heath and the young duo of Jacob Forey and Callum Westaway in this 33-7 victory.
The pick of the bunch came from Westaway as the centre thundered into a gap, showed good feet to evade a pair of defenders and then took the opportunity to dive in under the posts.
Fullback Jay Barnes was in charge of the kicking duties in the absence of Tom Steer and after hitting the post with a completely central conversion attempt, he proceeded to slot the other four from out wide, in an impressive manner.
In the place of Steer was another wily figure, Jake Monnington, who was “Outstanding at 10 for the first half” and got the hosts “a foothold in the game” according to Saxton.
He added, “We won that game on our defence, but also secondly, our ball-carrying was outstanding and Truro’s defence never really had a chance to get set.
“The way we were hunting down and attacking in defence, removing the yardage away and putting [Truro] under constant pressure was outstanding.”
All Whites led 19-0 at the break and hardly gave their Cornish opposition a sniff, Truro clawing back a try late on after Barnes tried and fail to run the ball off of his line.
Looking ahead for NARFC now and Saxton highlighted that “It is all about short-term goals, that we’re looking at, just knocking off and concentrating on what is just around the corner rather than season-long goals”, starting with home games against Wadebridge (Jan 18) and North Petherton (Jan 25) to close out the month.