Newport RFC : 1994/5 Season Summary

Season 1994/5
P37 W16 D2 L19 : F764-A732
(not incl Canada Tour)

Premier Lge Record : P22 W9 D0 L13 F366 A434 (Tries 31)

Canada Tour : P4 W 4 : F205-A27

Capt : Richard Goodey
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Before season 1994/5 had started new captain Richard Goodey knew he would have a difficult time. No fewer than 10 of the established players had left – Jon Westwood, David Llewellyn, Chris Wyatt and Chris Scott to Neath, Simon McCracken, Keith Lee and Roger Bidgood to Rumney, Andrew Lewis and Andrew Dibble to Treorchy and James Alvis to Swansea. New players included full-back Andrew Griffiths (Newbridge), wing Richard Rees (Neath) – a future Welsh international, wing Geraint Bowden (Ebbw Vale), centre Matthew Kehoe (Swansea), utility back Simon Enoch, prodigious goal kicker Martin Jones (Ebbw Vale) and prop Sven Cronk (Glamorgan Wdrs) – future Newport Captain and Head Coach. Outside-half Byron Hayward returned for his second spell at Newport. South African born No 8 Guy Manson-Bishop who was not eligible to play league matches but played for Newport United travelling from Bangor, N Wales each week. He played as a replacement for Barbarians in the team that beat South Africa in Dec 1994. Manager David Watkins and captain Richard Goodey worked hard to raise team spirits before the season started. Goodey worked particularly hard during the season and led by example but success on the field was limited and Newport once again finished 8th in the league which was won by old rivals Cardiiff. Try scoring again proved difficult with only 31 scored in the league. Newport never managed to string together more than three wins in a row and also had a losing run of 5 consecutive defeats in Nov / Dec. They did finish on a relative high with a home win vs Pontypool, a draw vs London Welsh, home win vs Dunvant and an excellent win at Cardiff Arms Park against the old enemy.

Overall top points scorers were Byron Hayward with 111pts from 13 games, Gareth Rees with 93pts from 9 games and Martin Jones with 80pts from 10 games (also 121pts for Newport United). Wing Ian Jeffries was the leading try scorer with only 7 from 24 games. Ben Atkins made most appearances with 30 while Richard Goodey made 28, Mark Yendle 27 and the ever-green David Waters made a further 8 to take him to 691 appearances in his career.

The Boucher Award went to Mark Workman and the Webber Award to Richard Goodey. Club badges were present ed to Ben Atkins, Sven Cronk, Simon Enoch, Andrew Griffiths and Mark Workman while Sean Duggan, Duncan Hughes, Richard Goodey and Kevin Moseley received blazers.,

Mark Workman toured Japan with the emerging Wales Squad, Duncan Hughes played for Wales Students, Martin
Llewellyn for English Universities, Matthew Evans for Wales U21 and lock Ian Gough for Wales Youth. Gareth Rees played for Canada, as did Rod Snow who would join Newport next season. They both played in World Cup in South Africa.

An end of season tour was made to Canada and all 4 matches were won easily with F205 A27. Interestingly back-row Alun Carter played all 4 matches at full-back and scored 38pts (5t / 5c / 1p).