Tamworth Emerge Victorious Despite Card Fest

After a well earned week off Tamworth were back in league action on Saturday when they welcomed Newark to fortress Wiggington Park. The hosts were hoping to reverse a 17-0 defeat they suffered at the hands of Saturday’s visitors in the reverse fixture back in November. Tamworth were quietly confident coming off the back of 7 straight wins that had seen them climb to third in the table knowing that a bonus point win could see them take second spot with Long Eaton’s game falling foul of the weather.
The opening exchanges were pretty even with two young sides playing some expansive rugby that was enjoyable to watch for the sizable band of supporters of both sides who had ventured down through the mud.
It would be Tamworth though that would take the lead after ten minutes as they secured the ball five metres out it was shipped to skipper Josh Roe who just proved too strong as he barged his way to the line 5-0.
The hosts doubled their lead five minutes later when Leighton Norton broke free in midfield he found half back Xavier Hill with a nice pass and a combination of pace to make it to within inches of the line without being caught and strength to force his way over despite the best efforts of the Newark defenders saw him score 10-0
From Tamworth looking quite comfortable the game was turned on its head with two pretty harsh yellow cards for the hosts within a minute of each other the first for straying offside and the second for allegedly playing the man at the lineout. Harsh or not this put Tamworth on the back foot as Newark set about making the most of their numerical advantage with great success scoring three tries with only a Danny Norton penalty in reply whilst Tamworth were down to 13 giving them the lead 13-17.
Tamworth now restored to full strength edged into the lead before the break with a try and conversion from Danny Norton returning to the side after injury as he took off on one of his trade mark jinking runs bamboozling the visiting defence before dotting down.20 -17
Tamworth were struggling to keep fifteen men on the pitch as they again saw yellow at the beginning of the second period for collapsing a maul frustrating the home supporters as Newark seemed to be committing the same innocuous offences but were getting away with warnings rather than cards. This again was the cue for Newark to take the lead as they found space around the outside to score moving them into a 22-20 lead.
As what had promised to be a really good game but had been somewhat spoilt by the man in the middle’s refusal to let the game flow entered its last quarter could Tamworth rescue any points from it.
The answer to that was yes they could as once again back to full strength they went on the attack and took the lead when Leighton Norton found a gap sniping around the fringes of a ruck to dive over for the bonus point score. Brother Danny was successful with the extras from the tee adding to another earlier penalty and Tamworth led 30-22.
Unsurprisingly the referee hadn’t finished with his influence on the game as he firstly awarded Newark their first yellow card met with sarcastic applause from the Tamworth supporters. Soon followed by yet another for Tamworth but to make things worse it was the player’s second of the game therefore it became a red meaning Tamworth would be short staffed for the remainder of the match.
It would be the home side’s resilience though that won out in the end as they scored a fifth try Conor Banham clearing up after Newark spilled the ball at a lineout he hacked the ball through chasing down his own kick to touch down. Norton slotted the extra’s to bring to an end a tough test for Tamworth in which Newark should be applauded for their involvement in a good game that was unfortunately prevented from being a great game.
Final Score
Tamworth 37
Newark 22