Lacklustre Blues are made to pay by Frome
Below-par display sees Newbury slip to another defeat on the road
NEWBURY Blues suffered a shock 24-17 defeat at the hands of South East 1 strugglers Frome on Saturday.
Injuries and unavailabilities meant that Blues coach Paul Archer was forced into making four changes, including a debut for Michael Duppa-Miller.
But even so, it was a game Blues would have been confident of winning.
The warning signs were there early on as Frome stole a couple of Blues lineouts.
But Newbury came close to taking the lead when a good kick by Toby Thorne into the home 22 was chased down by Jamie Futcher.
That caused panic in the Frome defence and they conceded a 5m scrum under their posts.
Blues, though, lost the ball at the scrum and Frome marched upfield for hooker Jon Benstead to score wide out following a maul in the 20th minute.
A series of knock-ons and handling errors meant that neither side to build an attacking base.
And it was from a knock-on that Blues took the lead on the stroke of half-time.
A great break from Dan Thorne took play into Frome’s 22 and his offload released Harry Waye-Branch, who had enough speed to get over as he was tackled.
Dan Thorne kicked the conversion to put Blues 7-5 up at half-time.
A controversial moment marred the start of the second half. Blues just failed to get over the try-line, but were awarded a penalty, prompting a home coach to encroach on to the field, barge a Newbury player and remonstrate with the referee.
Five minutes later, Frome were back in front as Elliott Bowler scored a well-worked try, which was converted to make it 12-10.
Good work from WayeBranch nearly led to a second Blues try, but they knocked-on with the try-line in sight.
Frome were now playing some good rugby and after several phases of attacking play Alistair Frost broke through to score another converted try and make it 19-10.
And Frome extended their lead further following a piece of individual brilliance in the 72nd minute.
Dav Jones pounced on a loose ball, raced out of defence before collecting his own kick ahead and off-loading for Rob Scully to score in the corner and make it 24-10.
Blues hit back when Michael Klichowiczset up Futcher, who crossed for a try converted by Thorne.
But they were unable to convert their late pressure into points and Frome held on.
Newbury Blues: Hicks, Waye-Branch, Macaulay, Neal, Davies, Jones, Hunt, Winfield, T Thorne, D Thorne, Futcher, Cole, Osborne, Stevens, Klichowicz, Goodall, Duppa-Miller, Copinger-Symes.