Forest of Dean Senior Combination Cup Final

Lydney RFC 23 Newent RFC 21

NEWENT’S appearances in Combination Cup finals have a history of producing games which are tight, tense and marked by controversy.

And it was the hosts who proved better at taking their chances, to leave a frustrated Green Army still searching for their first victory over the Severnsiders at Regentsholme.

Lydney opened the scoring after six minutes, when Newent were penalised for holding on at a ruck 20m out and fly-half Charlie Beddis slotted the points.

But when Lydney were soon penalised for the same offence in their 22, Newent opted to kick for the corner, where the hosts failed to clear their lines, and a long pass found Kyle Towers in space on the left-wing for the touchdown, with Doug Long adding the extras (3-7).

But Newent then infringed at a breakdown from the restart and Lydney narrowed the deficit from the boot of Beddis (6-7).

And the hosts regained the lead when blindside flanker Zak Williams took advantage of a lack of Newent guards at a ruck to run in from 25m, incorporating a neat sidestep to beat the last defender, Beddis converting for 13-7.

Newent got their noses back in front shortly before half-time though, as a succession of infringements in the Lydney 22 produced two home yellow cards, before Tom Webb dotted down under the posts after Nathan Brooks was stopped inches short.

Long added the conversion to make the half-time score 13-14.

Newent came out for the second half with a reshuffled back line, Tom Webb reverting to fly-half, Long moving to full back and Adrian Connelly to scrum-half, while Joe Warner came on at outside centre, with Nathan Brooks moving to the right-wing in place of Fin Mellis.

Facing 13 to begin with, Newent laid siege to the Lydney line, but couldn’t score.

With hindsight, they might regret not taking a leaf out of Lydney’s book and going for the posts instead of kicking penalties to the corner.

The closest Newent came to a try stemmed from Lydney possession, mobile loosehead Garrett Myers, playing against his former club, charging down an attempted clearance on the 22 and kicking ahead, only to make the touchdown on the dead ball line.

Newent’s cause was not helped by injuries to three of their biggest ball carriers – Ethan Allen, Jordan Devries and Josh Lever – leaving a lightweight pack.

And when Lydney ran the ball close to the Newent line, Brad Dunn came off the right-wing to scythe through the defence, and despite a fantastic Kyle Towers tackle, scrum-half Tom Broady in support picked up and crossed, with Beddis adding a fine conversion (20-14).

And a misplaced line-out then led to a penalty on Newent’s 22m line, 10m in from the right- hand touchline, and Beddis made it 23-14 with the game heading in to stoppage time.

Webb’s restart kick was a short grubber for his backs to chase, and although Lydney got to it first they were penalised for not releasing.

Two Webb tap and goes later and Tom Woodman was the man in possession for the touchdown as a cluster of Newent players drove under the posts.

Long wasted no time in knocking over the conversion (23-21), but as he did so the referee blew for the end of the game.