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. 

“In our last two games, they finally got some reward for their effort, which was pleasing to see and important for our season.”

After four rounds, just two competition points seperate Joeys, Kings, Riverview and Newington, with Shore and Scots just one win behind in a congested first XV ladder. 

Newington travel to play a young Kings’ side who have arguably been the surprise package of this season. 

Just one player returned from last year’s undefeated premiership winning side at Kings, with most of this year’s squad pushing up from last year’s 16As side. 

But Kings, coached by former Super Rugby players Hugh Perrett and Jimmy Hilgendorf, are second after the opening month of the season and head in to Saturday’s crucial clash coming off wins against both Riverview and Joeys. 

“Kings have been great this year,” Rapp said. 

“But we shouldn’t be surprised because teams are usually an indication of their coaches. 

“If you look at a Hugh Perrett coached forward pack, they are always going to be tough, hard over the ball and fit. 

“Then you combine that with a Jimmy Hilgendorf coached backline who like to move the ball around, be strategic and smart and try different things when they need to. 

“We’ve got a really hard working forward pack and we’ve got some flare in our backs, so we’ll try to move the ball away from them and try to catch some weak edges.”

Rapp said his side was hoping for a dry Saturday afternoon, but with up to 20mm of rain forecast, he said his side was preparing to adapt their game plan if needed, as they’ve done throughout the season. 

“We’ve got a set of backs who love to throw the ball around and attack at every opportunity but our forwards have really stepped up and given us another style to turn back to, where we look to work hard and grind teams out in the wet. 

“They’ve really muscled us this year, especially at set piece time and that’s given us the ability to turn to a wet weather style of rugby if we need to.”

In an indication of the tightness of this year’s competition, Newington could sit anywhere from first to last on the first XV ladder depending on results in the final matches of the first round. 

Competition leaders Joeys host third placed Riverview on Saturday, while sixth placed Shore host fifth placed Scots in the weekend’s other matches. 

“A win this weekend would be a fantastic reward for the group but it would also lift us to the point where we’d be really happy with our first round of the competition,” Rapp explained. 

“We were beaten by a better side against Joeys in round one, we were unlucky in round two against Riverview then we’ve been good in our last two wins. 

“So if we can get Kings this weekend, we’ll be in a really good spot heading into the backend of the season.”