All Rhoads lead to Dings after semi-final thriller
Oli’s hat-trick earns Blues a nerve-jangling extra-time success at Teignmouth
NEWBURY Blues went through the full range of emotions before winning 39-37 at Teignmouth in the Papa John’s Cup, South Shield semi-final on Saturday.
Blues looked to be cruising into the final as they stormed into a 32-10 lead after 54 minutes.
But the Devon side roared back to level in the final minute with a kick in front of the posts to win it.
However, the kick drifted wide, leading to 10 minutes’ each way injury time.
Teignmouth hit the front in the first half with an unconverted try.
But Blues bounced back and Tom Cole burst through to score under the posts and skipper Dan Thorne held his nerve to kick the winning points and set up a final showdown against Gravesend at Dings Crusaders RFC in Bristol on Saturday.
Teignmouth had the early pressure and they made it pay in the 12th minute when they won a lineout and kept the ball alive before scoring wide out to take 5-0 lead.
But Blues hit back four minutes later as Oli Rhoads ran through the defence to score wide out on the left, with the conversion drifting just wide.
Blues hit the front for the first time in the 29th minute as Thorne’s penalty made it 8-5.
And three minutes later Newbury extended their advantage as good play from Jamie Futcher and Jonny Lees set up another attack and Thorne’s neat kick was
touched down by Rhoads.
Thorne added the conversion to make it 15-5.
The home side, though, roared on by a big crowd, hit back before the break with another unconverted try.
Blues made a flying start to the second half as Rhoads broke through several tackle to complete his hat-trick and make it 20-10.
Two minutes later, more good work from Futcher set up Lees to score again, with Thorne’s conversion making it 27-10.
And Blues looked to have wrapped it up in the 54th minute when Harry Waye Branch caught a kick at full pace to burst over the line.
Teignmouth began their fightbck in the 60th minute with an unconverted try and two minutes later a penalty try cut the deficit to 32-22.
Two yellow cards left Blues with only 13 players and Teignmouth cashed in again in the 69th minute to make it 32-27.
The home side had the momentum and looked to have won it in the final minute.
After several phases they went over to make it 32-32 with an easy kick to come, but it was put wide of the posts and Blues lived to fight on in injury time.
After a discussion between the officials it was decided to play two halves of injury time, rather than use the ‘tries scored’ format, which would have seen Teignmouth through to the final.
The Devon side, though, continued to press in extra time and went ahead with another unconverted try in the 85th minute.
Time was running out for Newbury, but with just four minutes to go they won a scrum and Thorne’s neat pass set Cole to score.
Thorne took his time with the kick before slotting it over to put Blues 39-37 ahead.
Teignmouth then had to make their way the whole length of the pitch if they were to score again.
But although they gave it a good go, Blues regained possesion and kicked the ball out of play to seal their place in the final.
It was a game neither side deserved to lose, but it was Blues who were celebrating their fourth straight win.
Newbury Blues: Hicks, Waye-Branch, Robinson-Slater, Craigen, Doel, DuSautoy, Stewart, Lees, T Thorne, D Thorne, Klichowicz, Magee, Rhoads, Futcher, Cole, Haynes, Carnell, Burgess, Lewis, Lindsay, Osborne.