After losing their first two matches of the season, Newington have found form in recent weeks and won two straight matches to move within one win of Joeys at the top of the GPS first XV ladder. 

Newington fell just short against Riverview in round two, but bounced back to beat Shore and Scots in recent weeks and can cement their spot at the pointy end of the competition with a win over Kings at North Parramatta on Saturday. 

“Those two wins were great reward for the boys. They’d been working very, very hard, they were getting a lot of their detail right in games and their work ethic had always been very good,” coach Tim Rapp told Rugby News.

“We lost our captain Luca Cleverley to injury in our first game against Joeys and that was a big hit to the team. 

“But our forward pack banded together after that and realised that they needed to step up to fill the void left by Luca and they’ve been brilliant collectively in recent weeks.