Overnight rain left a heavy pitch but light winds and a mild temperature otherwise made for good playing conditions.

Newark arrived with a strong squad of 17 - early exchanges showed them to be well drilled and looking to play quickly through the breakdown.

Early Newark pressure eventually led to them scoring the games first try - which seemed to galvanise Corsairs into action.

Some fine team play led to a score in the corner for Corsairs and the, after they were held up over the try line, quick thinking at the base of the resulting scrum resulted in a 2nd score putting Corsairs 10-5 ahead.

The game was finely balanced at this point with both sides tackling and rucking well - both teams also looked to go wide when possible.

As the clock went red Newark kept the ball alive and scored a deserved 2nd try to end the half.

HT - 10-10.

The second half was a different story - and Newark ran in 3 tries in quick succession with good hard, straight running and some uncharacteristically poor tackling from Corsairs.

At that point heads could easily have dropped but Corsairs then gave as good as they got and the final 15 minutes of the game were close again with the 2 breaks going Newarks way.

Final score 10-35.

As always, we ensured every player had at least 1/2 a game - sometimes that makes life difficult against an A team but the longer-term aim is a strong squad rather than a strong team which inevitably means some tough encounters. There is much to be learned in defeat.