Novos Pack Lay Foundation For Win

Squad : Goodman, Twentyman, Menzfeld, Dodds, Igoe, Littlefair, Merrett, Westgarth, Armitage, Dodd, Busby, Nash, Ward J, Stewart, Bass, Stowe, Wilson S, Ward C, Chater, Kay, Moloney

First team debuts for Alex Westgarth (ex Tynedale) Lewis Chater (Novos Colt) and Aedan Moloney (ex Middlesbrough) and the game saw the return of Tom Armitage to the squad at scrumhalf.

Signs were that it was going to be a tough game as Hillhead looked up for it during their warm up and had disposed of Broughton relatively easily.

In our first game the lads carried their pre season work into this fixture as we looked fit and ready for contact. The scrum looked powerful (must be the new scrum machine!) as a slimmed down Tommy Goodman, versatile Pete Twentyman and super fit Luke Menzfeld. We kept the game pretty simple with some strong carries from Menzfeld, Iain Dodds, Josh Igoe and Alex Westgarth. During this period of pressure we scored two nice tries via James Bass and Johnny Ward, both converted by Richard Dodd. The lads kept the tempo high hoping that Hillhead would tire in the second half. 14-0 at half time.

Bit of a chat about how well we were going but understanding that we were going to get some pressure into the wind. Hillhead started the second half well showing they were a good side and scored a good try. Novos up 14-7.

I was looking forward to seeing how we responded to pressure and we reacted positively. Some line breaks by Jez Nash and Aedan Moloney saw us move ahead in the game. First Ben Merrett scored, then Sam Busby pushed the score out to 24-7. Hillhead would not go away however and nicked a soft score to peg it back to 24-12.

Our scrum power continued as we gained a couple of tightheads and secured further field position from some good kicks by Ward. From a driven lineout Ben Merrett was on the ball as we trundled over for a well executed driven maul, converted by Dodd.

Final whistle 31-12 win to Novos and no injuries ! Thank heaven for grass pitches again.

A really pleasing start against strong opposition. Strong debuts for Alex Westgarth and Aedan Moloney and a first run on for Lewis Chater. However, the biggest positive was perhaps the team unity and positive environment throughout a difficult opponent.

Next week we have our Refs Session on Monday as Dave Charlton talks us through the refs focus points for this season. In addition, we hope to have some competitive scrums and phase play against a local club side ! Thursday will be a light session with a lot of touch games. Then on Sunday the first team are at home to Sunderland in a friendly which will see Menzfeld, Dodds and Murphy play against their old club. In addition, we hope to see new scrum half Cillian O'Shaunghnessy, fullback Carl Parkinson (ex Morpeth) and front rower Andrew Steinberg (ex Percy Park) for the first time.