Novos well beaten but not disgraced

Before the game only the most optimistic Novo would have expected a Novos win against a side who would not look out of place 3 leagues above us, Northumbria endured a torrid season in North East One last year where many of their 2nd and 3rd team players (Some of whom have joined us this year) were engaged 2 leagues above Novos. The side Simon Culley and Dave Guthrie fielded last night was their full first XV BUCS side, one of the best around and littered with players playing or having played representative and national level rugby with clubs like Tynedale, Mowden Park and Blaydon.

The opening exchanges offered some promise for Novos as they enjoyed early possession and territory but the TN defence was rock solid and after ten minutes Novos tried a speculative kick which TN picked up to go the length of the pitch to score and convert. The writing was on the wall from this point and again a similar try was scored from a Novos kick through within minutes to put the students in control of the game.

Novos again attacked and saw great line breaks from Dan Bollado and James Parkinson but this time they kept it tight and drove around fringes and were rewarded with a try for vice captain Alex Littlefair.

This stirred TN into action and they went on the rampage adding 4 further tries before half time, despite brave defence and tackling from Novos the students were simply to well organised and fit and defence simply ran out of numbers as they scored impressive tries, on a plus note for Novos these were all out wide.

The 2nd half was even better for Novos who scored 2 fine tries via speedy wing Jonny Ward and hard working centre Rob Squire and could have possibly scored 2 more.

Jonny’s try was well worked with driving play from Jonny Smith and Pete Twentyman rewarded with good yardage and Andy Maxwell moved blind for Squire to put Jonny Ward into the corner.

The second was the best try of the night, a sharp break from Steve Neill found James Parkinson who made good yards and then a great line from Bollado and Squire created space for Squire to score.

Northumbria went on to record several more tries to emphasise their dominance and they won convincingly 78 – 17.

Despite the score line Novos did the club proud against a club by their own admission should not be competing in the plate competition. They were far too strong and have racked up nearly 200 points in 3 games of the competition such was the mismatches created. The county will hopefully look at this next year and TN can compete for the 1st tier county cup.. On this evidence they would have every chance of doing very well in it if they field their first choice line up.

Novos must dust themselves off and get ready for Prudhoe and Stocksfield on Saturday… Winning will send them one step closer to promotion which was the ultimate goal at the seasons start.