Blues find form in win on road
Two in two as McAvoy’s men trounce Buckingham
JAMES McAvoy’s Newbury Blues side won for the second successive weekend following a 49-0 demolition of Buckingham.
The result means the Blues move up to sixth in the Regional 2 Tribute South Central league table as McAvoy’s side look to build up a head of steam after a difficult start to the campaign.
McAvoy made four enforced changes to the side that beat Tottonians, handing a debut to Henry Sandys-Lumsdaine.
Newbury’s first score came 20 minutes in when Dan Thorne kicked a penalty to touch.
Blues won the line-out and their pack drove Buckingham back, allowing prop James Macaulay to cross before Thorne kicked the conversion to take the score to 7-0.
Bottom side Buckingham remained resolute, but Blues extended their lead 10 minutes later when Jamie Futcher released Sandys-Lumsdaine to score on his Blues debut and move the score to 12-0.
Into the second half and Newbury began to dominate, Thorne kicking two penalties to make it 18-0 before Michael Klichowicz crossed the whitewash to score and put Blues’ 23-0 ahead.
Alex Harris added Newbury’s fourth try of the afternoon in the 65th minute, running an aggressive line and latching on to Thorne’s neat inside pass before the skipper kicked the conversion to extend the lead to 30-0.
Josh Winfield then scored two tries in quick succession to make it 42-0 and there was still time for Freddie Beharrell to score his second try in as many games.
Thorne’s fourth successful
conversion made it 49-0 and capped an excellent afternoon in Buckinghamshire.
“It was fantastic, it was an excellent performance,” McAvoy said.
“Last week there was that little bit of panic, apprehension, but we got that first win out the way and this week we were more in that peak flow that we’re always striving for.
“I told the boys afterwards to remember how hard it is to put a zero on the board for a team.
“We saw some big results on the weekend, but in all of those results we saw teams scoring at least some points.
“Our game management was excellent, we didn’t give up opportunities and that was really pleasing.
“We use this analogy, we want to take teams into deep water.
“Teams are comfortable in the shallows – we want to see how comfortable they are when we drag them into deep water at the end of games.
“We want to ensure we’re the ones that tread water the longest.”
Sandys-Lumsdaine’s debut made him the 33rd player McAvoy has used this season in just five rounds, while Beharrell impressed again as he won his second Blues cap.
McAvoy said: “One of our big goals was to develop our squad, to see how many players could get into double figures in terms of Blues caps.
“Some players come up and their first cap looks like their 50th, others take a bit more time and their first caps are learning experiences.
“We’ve had three wingers debut in two weeks, they’re all making my selection difficult.”
Blues welcome Devizes, who sit one place below them in seventh on October 15.
“We’re winning because the boys have stepped up and brought into the Newbury way,” McAvoy said
“Long may it continue.”