Newport come up short in their final match of the year

The Old Showground outfit were edged out 36-34 on the road at Chester – a result which leaves them bottom of the table going into the Christmas break.

Newport outscored their hosts by six tries to five, but were yet again made to pay the price for a series of sloppy errors that helped the home side to victory.

The day started badly for the visitors as they conceded a try in the first minute and were left playing catch-up for the rest of the afternoon.

Timoci Waqadau touched down twice for Newport with Charlie Gamble, George Castledine, Frederick Bailey and Hendry Vaka also crossing the line. Connor Adams added two conversions.

The defeat was a sixth on the spin for Newport and they now face a break before returning to action in a crunch clash with a Hornets side sitting two places and eight points above them on January 13.

“It was a disappointing defeat,” said director of rugby Bob Adams.

“They had a red card towards the end of the first half but we couldn’t turn it around.

“We actually outscored them six tries to five but every time we got back into it we conceded a sloppy try. That has been our Achilles heel this season. It was another game where we should have left with five points but ended up with just two.

“Out attacking is looking good and scoring tries and that gives us some hope for the final 12 games.

“No-one had scored more than four tries at Chester and we scored six, but we have to eradicate the individual errors or else we will be in serious trouble.

“We have a three-week break now and the lads will have a couple of weeks off.

“We will be back at it on January 2 and start preparing for the Hornets clash.

“The players will have a chance to forget about rugby for a while and hopefully they will come back refreshed and ready to go.”

n Counties Two Midlands West (West) leaders Newport II are 12 points clear at Christmas after winning 43-7 at Tenbury. Finley Barnes (two), Robert Mayer, Rhys Williams, Fergus Lamb, Robert Taylor and Samuel Sergeant all crossed.

Clee Hill slipped back below Willenhall into third after a 22-17 defeat at their promotion rivals, despite scores for Rhys Williams, Timothy Breakwell and Thomas Bore.

And Oswestry recorded an 83-10 triumph over bottom side Rugeley.

Joe Hodgson led the way with four tries as the host crossed the line 13 times.

n Cleobury Mortimer and Shrewsbury II conceded their matches in Counties Three Midlands West (North), while Ludlow II were edged out 19-12 by Aldridge.

n And in Counties Four Midlands West (South), Bishop’s Castle & Onny Valley were beaten 36-14 by Warley