Novos 74, Darlington 12

Squad news - Josh Stacey volunteered to play for the twos to ensure Luke Menzfeld and Michael Stowe to play against their old club. Making his debut off the bench was Curtus Walker, an open side who is one of three lads to come to the club from Hymers.

The boys were in fine form on the bus down with the 2s also joining us for their Candy Cup Final vs Boro. The pitch was in great condition and we were hoping for one last performance.

It was great to see Darlo put in a spirited performance in their last game in this league. The early exchanges were very competitive, especially upfront. It took us till the 15th min to break the deadlock. After a line out drive we created some space for Jez Nash to lose his man. He passed the ball out to Angus Duncan who dotted it down out wide. Novos up 5-0.

We made a lot of mistakes at times in the first half but were controlling field position and possession most of the time. We worked ourselves close to the try line and hammered away for several phases before Josh Wright crashed over to make it 10-0. One of their players was yellow carded for foul play after the try was scored.

The yellow card saw an immediate response from Darlo and showed us they weren't going to just roll over. On the back of three pens they worked themselves into our 22m and eventually scored. Novos 10-5.

The first half wasn't s great spectacle as we made a lot of errors are Darlo tried to keep the game quite slow. They were excellent at the breakdown and starved us of quick ball. We did score another try before half time when Richard Dodd threw a miss pass out to Johnny Ward for his customary try. Conversion added by Dodd to make it 17-5 at half time.

We spoke about clearing out the breakdown to produce faster ball and hoped to keep our depth to move the ball to the wings.

Shaun Stewart took the kick off and fed the ball to Ben Merrett. A couple of shakes of the hips and he was off upfield. He was stopped by the fullback but then Alex Caldwell cleverly kicked over the ruck into the space were the full back should've been. Jonno Wilkes raced through and got the bounce. Novos 22-5 ahead.

Suddenly we seemed to have clicked into gear as we started to play some high tempo rugby and putting some width into the game. In a five min period Jez Nash went in for two fine try's both converted by Wilkes. The contest was over as we pushed the score out to 36-5.

At the kick off the ball bounced up high and Stowe left the ground to claim the ball in doing so. He was taken out whilst still in the air and some pushing and shoving started. As it looked to settle down one of their fat lads ambled in from 10m away and threw a couple of haymakers at Stowe. The ref had no choice but to red card the player. So Darlo were down to 14 for the last 30 mins and they were to be punished severely.

Six more tries were scored in the last 30 mins as we went into fourth gear and found additional space as they were a player short. Tries were scored by Dodd, Wilkes, Stewart, Ward and two for Sam Busby. Four of these were converted by Wilkes to make the final score 74-5.

We quickly jumped the fence to watch the last mins of the 2s game but unfortunately they were narrowly beaten by a good Boro side. However, we all moved into one changing room and shared a beer or two and toasted a great season for the club across the board. At the start of the year we said our goal was to enjoy our rugby, improve our standard of play and win a cup. So I guess we over achieved in many respects.

Lots of thanks to all involved in management of the club this year. We have some amazing volunteers at the club and all your hard work behind the scenes is paying off. Thank you to Lucy and her team, all our physio support, the Aliks for turning up home and away each week including filming the games. Finally, thank you to all the players at Novos especially the team captains and vice captains.

So it's time to chill and let bodies heal, reintroduce ourselves to our partners and families and enjoy the summer. Although there is the small matter of Awards Night and the Novos Ball.

Hope to see you all at the end of June for training !! That means you to Ben Merrett.