Newark Women win the NC 3 Midlands (North) rugby title at the first attempt after a season to remember

Newark Women’s first year of league rugby has ended in championship glory.

The team won the NC 3 Midlands (North) title with a record of 10 wins, a draw and just three defeats, finishing a point clear of runners-up Lutterworth.

Their success is all the more impressive considering a number of players weren’t sure they were ready for competitive rugby.

But Newark, with just half a season of Inner Warrior Series action behind them, took the plunge and got their rewards.

“It’s our first year in the league and our first full season,” said coach Mark Dobb.

“We took part in the Inner Warrior last year from Christmas which is a combination of festivals and, when you’re confident, you can play 15-a-side as one-off games.

“We played in three festivals and had two 15-a-side games, which gave the coaching team a question for the women, to say what do we want to do this year?

“I’ll be honest, a lot of them said ‘no, we’re not ready for league rugby’.

“They didn’t have the confidence to enter the league, so we worked on that first in pre-season, building on the confidence rather than the skills, building on the positives and what they do well, rather than looking at the negatives.

“We had a great opening game, which really boosted their confidence for the rest of the season.

“We lost the next game, to Lutterworth, the team who eventually finished second, but we also took a lot from that game.

“I set a target of a 50:50 win-lose split, so I’m amazed we’ve won the league.

“It’s been a real good experience.”

Newark beat Lutterworth 24-5 in the return game at Kelham Road, part of an eight-match unbeaten run which clinched the title.

They went down 46-7 at Market Bosworth in their final match but the title was already in the bag.

Dobb, whose side finished the campaign with a 40-5 friendly win at Gainsborough on Sunday, said: “All we’ve done week on week is just build on the positives, take the positives from the game and put training into practice.

“We’ve worked around drills, game awareness and we’ve just evolved that way.

“Our numbers have also evolved. They’ve grown that much that we’re fielding two teams next year.

“We’ve also integrated our under-18 girls into the women’s set-up when they’ve been able to get clearance to play.

“That’s also boosted our numbers, it’s helped with retention of the under-18s and the women have embraced them.

“They’ve also taken from their experience because some of these girls have been playing three, four, five years, where some of the women have been playing three, four, five months.

“From our youngest player to our oldest player there are three generational gaps, if we’re talking 10 years per generation, but they all get on, they’re all accepting of each other and they all enjoy their rugby and have fun.”