Novos 21, Boro 66 - Horrific Start

This game was lost in the first 20 mins as Novos self destructed with a period of poor support of the ball, lack of accuracy and individual errors.
During this period Boro capitalised with four tries and three conversions in the opening salvo. 26-0 after just twenty odd mins.

We finally got into the match in the last ten mins of the first half after an excellent cross field kick by Rich Harrison. It was fielded on the fly by Lewis Chater who raced in under the posts and added the conversion himself.

Unbelievably we brought the game back to 26-14 after a quick tap by Darren Kelly as he went in untouched. Conversion added by Chater.

Half time arrived and we had expended a lot of energy trying to get back into the match. As such Boro once again grabbed the initiative with two tries, again after we lost our own set piece. Score pushed out to 40-14 with Boro 10/12/13 running the show and Sean Maloney (ex Novo Aedan is his brother) benefitting from their play.

We were pushing for losing bonus point after Eoghan Phillips scored a fine team try, conversion added by Chater to make it 40-21.

The lads were on empty now as they pushed the tempo to try and get that elusive fourth try. We had a few chances but the ball bounced unkindly at times and Boro finished strong. They scored some fine tries before the final whistle sounded at 66-21.

Thank you to the ref who I though was excellent throughout with his decision making.

Cheers to Boro - swarmed on us in the first quarter and finished strong. A good pack, desire to play rugby and thought your 9/10/12/13 were excellent. Then the gas out wide was a un-defendable. Final thank you for the hospitality which was excellent by Andrew Baggett and the club as a whole.

Novos lads - a poor day which I did not enjoy. However, I did enjoy the bus trip and team bonding afterwards - more than some of you lads ! Never seen so many boys struggle with games - a sign of the times perhaps as participants simply unable to concentrate ! Thank you to Pete Twentyman for organising matters during the week.