Struggling Newport warned to dig deep

The Forton Road men were beaten 22-15 at Malvern on Saturday, their fifth setback from seven league outings.

And director of rugby Ray Price admits life is not going to get any easier in the coming weeks due to continued problems with injury and unavailability.

Skipper Craig Ingram was the latest to find himself on the sidelines, the prop suffering a hamstring injury at Malvern.

"It's a deplorable start," said Price. "We picked up another bonus point on Saturday (for losing by less than seven points) and we've done that in four of our five defeats.

"That shows how close it's been and things could have been quite different. It's not good enough though, and we know that - we're just not scoring enough points.

"I'm hoping that when everyone's available and we have our injured players back we'll be able to turn the corner.

"For now we just have to tough it out, but it's extremely difficult."

Newport had looked in a strong position, leading 15-5 at one stage.

That was down to tries from Ben Warrilow and Rob Clymer, with Tomasi Tanumi having kicked one conversion and a penalty.

But Malvern came roaring back and pinched the victory in the closing stages.

Luctonians made it three wins in a row when they overpowered Peterborough with a 32-3 victory at Mortimer Park.

The Herefordshire club ran in five tries to climb up into seventh place after losing their first three games.

"We showed more flair in the three quarter line but once again our pack was the dominant feature of our performance," said spokesman Robin East.

"Last season Peterborough beat us twice but we took our revenge in style. Once we got going we were in control for the majority of the game."

Mike Thompson opened their scoring with a penalty and there were also tries for Steve Jakes and scrum-half Ollie Williams in the first period.

Thompson added a try of his own before Williams added another and Paul Hulland got in on the act as well. Thompson kicked two conversions.

Hereford have bounced back from their defeat at Bromsgrove with a 29-20 win over South Leicester at Wyeside.

They ran in four tries through Dean Powell, Adam Knight, Gareth Miles and Keiron Griffiths.

Fly-half Powell converted three of the four tries and a penalty to complete the Hereford points tally.

By CHRIS HUDSON