United emerge victorious at Rodney Parade

2 tries last night
By Duncan Wood
September 11 2002

Good news and bad news as the United run up a 38-33 victory at Newport. Some good performances were turned in and several players made comebacks after injury. On the other hand, a couple of players picked up knocks.

The plus points were firstly clinching a win. It may only have been a United game but winning's a habit!

Excellent news that Jamie Williams looked so sharp and his two tries will have served notice that he's pushing for a first team recall. Also good to hear that Andrew Higgins looked so good in his first competitive match since April and he'll benefit from the 65 minutes or so that he played.

It's also very encouraging to see so many former/ current U21s in action. By the end of the game, the back 5 was a youthful looking Richard Hunt, Richard Hunt, Craig Short, Rhys Oakley and Matt Styles. Styles had to slot into the second row when Scott Morgan left the field and Martin-Redman played despite suffering the after effects of a bug that has hit the U21 squad this week and forced him out of the starting lineup and onto the bench.

On the downside, it appears that Craig Short has either reaggravated the ankle injury or picked up another knock and had to leave the field on the hour. There was also frustration for Scott Morgan who suffered a supected broken hand in his first competitive outing of the season.

One final point is that it's very interesting to see that Andrew Sheridan came on at half time for Paul Johnstone. It was, of course, against Newport last season in a pre season friendly that Sheri first appeared at prop.

He went on last season to appear in the second row and also wore the number 6 shirt on occasion. Is the experiment with him at prop starting all over again?

Team:

Team - Matt Carrington (Miles Johnson 46); Luke Nabaro, Andrew Higgins (Tom Luke 64), Duncan Hayward, Jamie Williams; Shane Drahm, Peter Richards (Paul Hodgson 69); Paul Johnstone (Andrew Sheridan H/T), Neil McCarthy (Chris Rowland 56), Emiliano Bergamaschi, Richard Hunt, Scott Morgan (Richard Martin-Redman 19), Craig Short (Capt) (Matt Bourne 61), Rhys Oakley, Matt Styles.

Scorers:

Tries: McCarthy, Drahm, Williams (2), Oakley, Johnson

Conversions: Drahm (4)