Sluggish start costs Newport in a defeat to Wirral

The Old Showground outfit headed north to take on Wirral and were left facing an uphill battle as they trailed 24-0 at half-time.

And it was a battle that proved beyond them as they could only manage seven unanswered points, courtesy of a try from Ricky Bailey and a conversion from Benny Elliot after the break.

“We didn’t perform well enough and we have got to start executing our game plan from the first minute,” said director of rugby Steve Dolphin, who saw Harry Peregrine and Henry Holmes make their senior team debuts.

“We are not starting as dominant as we would like and we are waiting until we are in trouble before we start to play.

“We were 24-0 down at half-time and although we won the second half 7-0, we couldn’t pull it back.

“The desire and appetite is there, we are just slow coming out of the blocks.

“There are no weak teams at this level and you have to be on your game every week. We have to play for 80 minutes and that’s been the issue lately.

“We will have a look and see if we need to change things in the warm up to make sure the players are at the right level for when the game starts. We will get it right.”

Newport face a tough test on Saturday when they host league leaders Rossendale.

Newport thirds won 38-14 at Essington to make it six wins out of six in Counties Four Midlands West (North).

Christopher Tait, Rhys Long, Waisea Qase, Marsden Humphries, Connor Baker and Michael Woodhouse all touched down.

“The second team won their first game of the season and the third team continue to win, while we also put a fourth team out on Saturday, so we are really pleased with things overall,” added Dolphin. “We just have to get the first team winning again.”

Telford Hornets seconds lost 29-14 at Wednesbury in the same division, while Bishop’s Castle & Onny Valley thrashed Five Ways Old Edwardians 73-10 in Counties Four Midlands West (South).