Newport targeting the title after securing promotion

A 50-19 success away to Doncaster Phoenix last Saturday sealed a place in National 2 with three games of the season to go.

And now director of rugby Bob Adams and his squad have the Midlands Premier title in their sights, with nine points needed from their remaining matches to secure the silverware.

After being in and around the promotion mix for the past few years, Adams admitted it was a proud moment on Saturday when they clinched the step up in standard.

“It was a nice feeling because we have been working towards this for a few years,” said Adams, who is also the club’s head coach.

“It’s well deserved for the lads and everyone involved on and off the field. It was a really proud moment and huge credit to the players and staff.

“We felt that this could be our year and we set ourselves three goals before the season.

“The first was to win promotion, the second was to win the league and third was to win the North Midlands Cup.

“We have achieved the first and now we can focus on winning the title before we turn our attention to the cup final.

“The players are well grounded and very humble and if they go and win the title it will be well deserved.

“In the huddle after the game on Saturday our skipper, Tom Cowell, said that there was still a job to be done.

“He told the lads that they can’t afford to drop their standards or work ethic and if they want to win the title then they to play like we did in the second half.

“From a coach’s point of view that was pleasing to hear. It would have been easy to get caught up in the emotion but they are focused on winning that title.”

Newport have been setting the pace for the majority of the season with a 15-game winning streak powering them to the top of the table.

And Adams admitted he sensed they were on the road to success after beating fellow high-fliers Sheffield and then recording a stunning 55-0 success at arch rivals Bridgnorth.

“After winning against Sheffield and then beating Bridgnorth away, I sensed that this was our time and that the players were in the right frame of mind,” added Adams.

“We had a bump in the road against Burton a couple of weeks ago when we lost but we got back on the wagon on Saturday.”

It wasn’t all plain sailing for Newport on Saturday as their hosts raced into a 12-0 lead. But a blistering 15-minute spell at the start of the second half in which they scored five tries turned the game on it’s head.

“Doncaster were well organised and they flew out of the blocks,” said Adams.

“We were doing things we don’t normally do and we panicked a bit. We needed to settle down.

“Credit to the lads because they got themselves 14-12 in front at half-time and we then had a good chat and just told them to go out and express themselves.

“And it’s testament to the group because they did that. Everything just clicked. It was a great 40 minutes of rugby and a pleasure to watch.”

Newport’s tries were scored by Nemani Rayabo (two), Samuel Evans (two), Hendry Vaka (two) James Morton and Benjamin Elliot, while Jacob Leonard added eight conversions.