Novos Errors Aid Gosforth Win

A young and inexperienced Novos side travelled the short distance to take on Gosforth in the first of this seasons Rington Tea Cup matches. In fact there were only 2-3 players in the side who played this corresponding fixture last season as injuries and unavailability continue to hinder Novos season.

The game was very competitive early on as Gosforth and Novos enjoyed periods of possession. Our opponents took the lead with a well struck penalty for a 3-0 lead. Then it was our turn to apply pressure as we carried well. After several drives a mismatch was created as Sam Busby was marked by two Gosforth forwards, he stood them both up to score down the right flank. Conversion added by Greg Humphreyson to make it 7-3 to Novos.

In a tight contest Gosforth got the ascendency when Sam Busby was yellow carded for slowing down the ball after a fine break by the Gosforth right wing. Whilst Busby was off Gosforth scored to good tries to put their lead out to 15-7.

Back to 15 men we finished the half well as Humphreyson kicked a penalty to make the half time score 15-10 to Gosforth but we were right in the match.

In a strange second half the contest lost its competiveness as Novos made some poor decisions. We chose to run the ball from deep on a heavy pitch. Gosforth capitalized twice from errors near our line to extend their lead to 29-10. More bad news when captain Alex Littlefair sustained an injury which looks like it will keep him out of rugby for an extended period. Another game changing moment was when Busby was spear tackled which resulted in some pushing and shoving. The ref yellow carded the tackler but also carded George Bambrick for seeking to protect Busby. So it was 14 on 14 for the last ten mins.

Gosforth ran in two more tries to make the score board look quite bad at 39-10. However, we knew it had been a competitive match and at 15-10 we should have got something out of the game. Hopefully, our young side will have learnt things from the game regarding management of play.

Next week we have the double header against Gateshead.