Cambridge 12 – 55 Newmarket

Newmarket put in a very complete performance to overwhelm Cambridge in every phase of the game. The home side struggled to cope with the strong running of the Newmarket forwards and backs. The tone was set in the first minute as Dan Bristow collected the ball from the kick off and shook off tackler after tackler until brought down 10 metres from the line. From the subsequent scrum Chris Le picked up and proved unstoppable from short range. Joe Stafford kicked the first of his five conversions.

Newmarket quickly doubled their lead as a long kick from Stafford was chased down by fullback Toby Colletta. He disrupted the Cambridge attempt to re-gather the ball and forced a fumble that allowed Stafford to complete the move with the simplest pick up and score.

Following a short period where Cambridge had the upper hand, the backs got into their stride. Iain Moffat proved hard to stop and Nathan Buckle deserved a try for a powerful straight run from inside centre. However, when he was brought down, Le was on hand to pick up his second score. It looked as if the match was going to be almost entirely the second row show as first Bristow crashed over and then Le completed his hat trick following good work by Dan Downing. Newmarket went into the half-time break with a 31 point lead.

In the first half Newmarket had been quick to the tackle and had starved Cambridge of good quality ball. However, they were nearly caught out from the second half kick off. It was only bravery by Buckle on his own try line that stopped Cambridge retrieving the ball and scoring. From the subsequent penalty Newmarket were soon back in the opposition half. Jack Watson got close to the line but some great defence by Cambridge turned over the ball. They were slightly unlucky that their attempted clearance kick was charged down by Ethan Brown who showed admirable alertness to follow up and touchdown before the home defence could respond.

Despite the mounting scoreline, Cambridge were far from done. With their backs tending to run across the pitch rather than straight, they had struggled to make much impression in open play and had made it easy for the Newmarket wings Moffat and Gwilym Davies to close them down with some solid tackling. But the home side's quicker thinking resulted in two tries from tapped penalties following infringements by Newmarket close to their own line. Those proved to be their only scores and  sandwiched another Newmarket try. With Stafford taking every opportunity to put the home team on the back foot with long kicks, replacement Jack Felton proved adept at chasing them down on the wing. Buckle, Watson and finally Stafford then gave a master class in keeping the ball alive as the backs combined for the sixth try.


With the front row of Olly Sanusi-Bartlett, Downing and Tom Wills solid at the scrum and flankers Ben Jeacock and Ashley Reid disrupting Cambridge possession, Newmarket continued to secure plenty of ball and that continued when new recruit Charles Curtis came on for his first match. Scrum half Lewis Heap was controlling the pace of the game from the set pieces but it was Bristow who again proved unstoppable as he recovered the ball from the ruck and out-paced the defence to score under the posts.

Newmarket's final try was scored by Reid. A series of hand offs took him past the Cambridge defence to crash over the whitewash and bring the match to an end. It was deserved reward for an excellent all round performance that also brought him the man of the match award.