Away Bonus Point at Title Favourites

For the first time this season Novos squad saw some changes. Upfront Josh Stacey was unavailable which did enable us to bring Alex Westgarth in. However, captain Alex Littlefairs unavailability due to illness was a large void to fill in leadership. In addition, influential new recruit Cillian O'Shaughnessy was injuered which saw Colt Lewis Chater get another start. If that wasn't enough, point scoring machine Johnny Ward was away with work. So it was always going to be a difficult day at high flying Boro.

Despite all the changes we edged the early exchanges against a heavy Boro pack. We were camped in Boros 22m for the first fives mins. After a sustained period of pressure Boro gave away a penalty, slotted by Richard Dodd. Novos 3-0

The match was competitive all over the pitch but our forwards were playing at a faster speed than Boro and our backs were attacking with real depth. After a series of carries Lewis Chater filling in at scrum half made a break. The ball was then spread to Sam Busby who raced in to put Novos out to an 8-0 lead.

Boros scrum was a handful in the early stages and they started to get over the gain line as we tackled a bit too high. We were now under the cosh and Jez Nash got a yellow card. Boro opted for a scrum and went in for a soft try after a missed tackle. Novos up 8-7.

Boro were all over us just before half time as we fell off some tackles and we couldn't get a whistle in our favour. They went in again to make it 12-8 at half time to Boro. Game on.

The second half started where the first ended as Boro marched down the slope due to the whistle and some decent ball carriers. During this spell they scored a soft try and a very good try to take it out to 22-8 heading into the last quarter.

We have done some great work in pre season and look forward to the last quarter. Suddenly, the game changed as we upped the tempo and the large Boro side were looking tired despit their lead. First of all Dodd kicked a penalty and then Chater set up Busby for his second. Novos down but flying as it looked like Boro had run out of gas. Our scrum was now on top and we were making line breaks every time we touched the ball. Unfortunately, breaks by Nash and Joe Ball were not finished due to some decent scrambling defence by Boro.

Steven blew his whistle one final time for a Boro win 22-18. A well deserved bonus point for us when it looked at 60mins that we would get nothing out of the game. Proud of the lads and our attitude was great despite coming under severe pressure at times.

Congrats to Boro who I thought were a real step up in class for our lads. However, we can take great heart from pushing them all the way.

For our lads, can't wait to see how you respond to our first loss of the season. After our other three sides won I'm sure the mood will still be great in training. Next week sees us return to Sutherland Park vs Rovers. Cmon lads, let's respond in true Novos fashion ! Get yourselves available as we hope to have early kick offs to ensure players can nip across to the World Cup afterwards.