Tuesday it was back to the club as the first team squad worked in units as the forwards hit the scrum machine for the first time this season. The backs played some counter attacking games as well as looked at strike moves offset pieces.

Whilst this was occurring 20 odd 3/4's were playing touch based games to continue the amazing progress they have made so far this pre season. This group of players seem motivated to be more than just social rugby players.

On Thursday, Lewis Chater stayed at Novos to take almost 25 lads for conditioned games whilst the first team travelled to Blaydon.

It was a great experience to train on Blaydon's new 3g pitch. About 25 Novos lads joined about 30 Blaydon lads in a group warm up and some touch based games.

The forwards did some set piece work against Blaydon. The boys held their own at scrum time with some great strikes from our hookers. At line out time Chris Ward looked comfortable running the five man and winning our own ball. We did learn that there is work to do defensively to try and win ball on our opponents throw.

Our backs did two phase work against their opponents and learnt a lot about how the quality of their passing allowed them to hold width. In addition, the Blaydon boys were excellent at supporting out wide enabling them to finish breaks. It was great to see Nick Bellamy and Alex Tait having their first attacks for Novos. Sam Busby and Jonny Ward looked dangerous at times.

Thank you to Blaydon for hosting, especially Matt Thompson. I have wanted to do some conditioned training against other clubs for a while but have been turned down. I thought it was very worthwhile and we look forward to going to Rockcliff on Tuesday before the competitive matches start on Friday at Gosforth for a 1830 kick off.

Up the Vos !