Oak went down to a last minute try in their first game in Midlands 1 West against Newport who were relegated from National 3 last season. Oak were more than a match for Newport who have retained all their squad and are hoping to be a force at the top end of the table. Oak controlled a lot of the game fair to say 65/35% in favour of Oak but at the critical moments good defence, dropped ball and more annoyingly strange decisions by the ref cost Oak the opportunity to open a bigger gap then the 13-3 score at one point. Oak also gave away a couple of easy penalties that lead to a try and kick to level the scores. Oak regained the lead in the second half and were holding the lead, but the ref adjudged a charge down was inside the try area and taken to ground by Oak and awarded a scrum to Newport who were strong in this part of the game, they dual won their ball and draw in the defence before working the ball out wide to score with no time to restart the game. With a number of players to come in to the team, Oak showed they are capable of a high finish in the league against a team who will be up there at the business end of the season, with the Newport management commenting Oak were hard done by.
Newport left things late against newly promoted Moseley Oak securing victory with the last play of the game to take the spoils from the talented visitors who probably deserved to win given their performance over the course of the game...
