Novocastrians 7s Squad Triumph

Squad news - Aedan Moloney, Ben Merrett, Martin Pluskal (Gateshead RFC) Jez Nash, Lewis Chater, Sam Busby, Johnny Ward, Shaun Stewart, Rob Murphy, Matt Banning (Gateshead RFC) and Matt Bradford.

Craic - We were entered in the Social 7's but had a poor start to the tournament as Josh Wright, Carl Parkinson cried off and then Richard Dodd left us without playing a match due to a technical fault with his laptop.

Pool Play
Beat Ashington 40-5 - Tries : Ward (2) Busby (2) Stewart, Nash tries. Conversions : Chater (4), Stewart
Beat The Ringers 43-5 - Tries : Merrett, Busby, Moloney, Stewart, Ward (2), Nash. Conversions : Ward, Busby, Chater, Stewart
Beat Whitley Bay 61-0- Tries : Ward (3), Busby (4), Bradford, Chater (2). Conversions : Busby (2), Chater (2), Ward

We were lucky to get a kind draw as the other pools included Medicals, West Hartlepool, Durham Colleges and The Army. We quickly learnt that we had a lot more pace in our side than the other teams. With strong defence from our team we were able to score a lot of counter attack tries. We enjoyed the morning playing at Bullocksteads and had some entertaining moments. We played against one of our own in Lex Leonard, there were a few huge hits put in, laughed when a very hungover Lewis was caught after a break. However, the biggest chuckle was when our capped county player was stepped by an opposing prop...sorry Aedan.

We moved over to Kingston Park for the semi final but had to wait whist several elite pool games were completed.

Semi Final
Beat Medicals 21-14 - Tries :Busby, Banning, Ward. Conversions - Chater, Banning, Ward

We were up for this after some harsh words were exchanged on Thursday when both sides were training at Paddy Freemans. However, it was Medicals that started the strongest and went in to make it 7-0. We responded with a 60m try to Sam Busby to make it 7-7. We seemed to have gained control of the match when Matt Banning went in with his first touch of the game to make it 14-7 with only 90 secs to play. However, Medicals scored straight from the kick off to make it 14-14. We then coughed up the kick off, giving Meds the ball in our 22m with 45 secs to play. Some great team defence kept them out and we turned the ball over 5 m from our line. The ball was passed to Ward who ran 95m to get the winner. A cracking match where neither side deserved to lose.

Final
Beat West Hartlepool 35-26 - Tries :Banning, Ward (2), Murphy, Busby. Conversions : Banning, Ward (2), Bradford, Chater

It had been a long day and the final kicked off several hours after we first arrived at KP. We were all up for one last push to try and finish the season on a high. Wests were a young side and had earlier knocked out The Army and a very good Durham Colleges side. We started the match flying as the ball was fed to Matt Banning who again ran in his first touch of the ball, 7-0. Wests then scored to make it 7-7 before we gained the initiative once again. We scored further tries through Johnny Ward (2), Rob Murphy and Sam Busby to make the final score 35-26.

A brilliant end to a fantastic season as Jez Nash lifted the Social 7's Trophy.

Thanks to the Falcons for putting on the event including providing a host of refs, 3 crates of beers to sup and another opportunity to have a run out on KP (we are unbeaten on this pitch ! Three from three !!)

See you all in pre season starting at the end of June !