Dundalk went into this match after a hard to swallow defeat against Garda RFC looking to get back on track for the Leinster league campaign.
With the boot of Trevor Marama at out half keeping Newbridge pinned back inside their own half and the Dundalk pack taking control at scrum time, the visitors eventually broke through.
Newbridge had a scrum from the knock on at their five meter line, but the Dundalk pack weren’t leaving without points and drove the scrum back over their own try line to give Dundalk the next scrum.
Dundalk went through 12 phases before Mark Rowntree crossed the line to give Dundalk the lead to which Marama added the conversion to leave it 7-0 with 25 minutes gone.
Newbridge were really under pressure now, and were penalised for not rolling away in the tackle and Marama kicked the penalty to leave the score at 10-0 to Dundalk at half-time.
The Second half started with the pressure still on Newbridge, but a moment’s lapse in concentration in defence for Dundalk at ruck time let the Newbridge number nine break free to gain over 30 meters before full back Robert Williams put in a try saving tackle.
Still, the ball was recycled quickly out of the ruck for a try under the posts and easily converted to leave it 10-7.
Dundalk failed to deal with the kick off and an unforced error led to another three points for Newbridge to leave it 10-10 with 50minutes gone. Newbridge pushed 16-10 in front without having to work too hard for the opportunities. Marema came off injured along with Brendan Hadden and Johnny Grey, to be replaced by Declan McCabe, Greg Whately and Ciaran Sloane who all helped lift the tempo of the game for Dundalk.
When Newbridge were penalised near the halfway line, and with Dundalk’s first choice kicker gone off injured, MJ McKevitt stepped up to kick the long range penalty to leave it 16-13 with 10 minutes left. Dundalk were awarded one more penalty which was kicked by man-of-the-match McKevitt to earn a draw.
R Williams; D McGuinness; R McArdle; MJ McKevitt; S Murphy; T Marema; J Williams; K Dorian; J Gray; C Branigan; D Fearon; P Meegan; B Hadden; M Rowntree; E Fa’atau. Replacements: C Sloane; D McCabe; G Whately; D Clare; E Boyle.