Sluggish start is costly as Newport fall just short

The Old Showground outfit were left stunned by an early Manchester blitz last weekend that saw their hosts lead 21-0 inside 18 minutes.

But a stirring comeback saw Newport drag themselves back into the contest as they ran in four tries. Unfortunately for the visitors they fell agonisingly short as the home side held on to win 33-32.

“Unfortunately we made life difficult for ourselves,” said Dolphin. “But there are loads of positives to take from the game.

“They really dug deep to get themselves back in the game and we are super proud of their efforts.

“But they showed great resilience to come back and with another five minutes, who knows?

“Manchester played very well and a couple of their tries were really well executed, so you have to take your hat off to them.

“We made a couple of mistakes and there is a bit of game management that we need to get right.

“But we have to stop giving teams an advantage. It was similar the game before but we got away with it. That wasn’t the case this week.

“But we are not too deflated, it’s a good learning curve.

“We said at the start of the season that we wanted to be competitive in every game and that has been the case.”

After conceding three early tries at Manchester, George Perkins started the comeback with a try, which was converted Benny Elliot

Tries from Charlie Gamble and Ricky Bailey, plus another conversion and a penalty from Elliot put Newport 22-21 in front.

Manchester responded with two tries, one of which was converted, to lead 33-22.

A late push from Newport saw Elliot land another penalty before a converted try from Gamble made it 33-32. But the visitors then ran out of time.

Newport are on their travels again on Saturday when they make their first ever trip to high-flying Wirral.