HEREFORD coach Alun Richards blamed his side for playing 'schoolboy' rugby during a disappointing 25-10 defeat at Newbold on Avon.

The Wyesiders were guilty of not using the conditions to their advantage before conceding three second half tries during back-to-back away defeats.

“It was another disappointing result, we had targeted this away game for a win to take us into the top three, but unfortunately, we have come away with nothing," said Richards.

"It is important if we want to be considered a top team, that we can come away to places like Newbold and get a win.

"In terms of performance on the field, we didn’t capitalise when we had the advantage of the strong wind in the first half and didn’t play in the right areas.

"Fair play to Newbold, I think they wanted it more than us, they played the conditions much better than us, pegging us back into the corners and looking threatening out wide which we couldn’t really cope with today.

"We did fight back and did get into the game, but the boys reverted back to type, playing schoolboy stuff, throwing the ball around when we needed to keep it tight, building the phases and keeping our structure to wear down the opposition.

"We need a good training week next week, hopefully back on the field where we can look at our structure and our phase play.

"We now have five home games in a row and we shall look to turn these performances around and get back to winning ways, in front of our home crowd.”

Hereford kicked off with the strong wind at their backs, but failed to take advantage, keeping the ball in hand rather than kicking for field position.

Newbold were caught offside and Freddie Spencer gave Hereford the lead from the resulting penalty.

Before half-time Newbold had responded with two penalties to enter the break 6-3 ahead.

In the second half the hosts exploited the advantage from the blustery wind and kept Hereford pinned into their own half for long period and built up a good lead with two good tries, both of which were converted.

The Wyesiders fought back and after a prolonged attack created a gap for Freddie Spencer to touch down for a try to reduce the deficit, Spencer converted his own try.

Shortly after Spencer was shown a yellow card and Newbold took advantage of the extra man to push over from a scrum close to the visitors’ line to complete the win.