Novos 21, Medicals 28 - Rugby Rollercoaster

Some disruption this week as Club Captain, Pete Twentyman sustained an injury at training.

We started pretty well and moved into Medicals 22m with a line break by Ben Wollerton at full back. A tip tackle was penalised by Graham Crozier and Shaun Stewart stepped up to slot it through.

From the kick off we broke out of our 22m as Ben Wollerton again rounded the Medicals centre from our scrum. We were camped in Medicals half for a long period and should've come away with more than a penalty from the boot of Shaun Stewart. Medicals scrambled well to their credit but our scrum earned the penalty to put us 6-0 up.

Shaun Stewart again secured the kick off but we were penalised by blocking, rightly so but a soft penalty to concede as Meds closed it to 6-3 without really earning it.

Huge momentum swing occurred next as we attacked from a midfield scrum. We looked like Wollerton was going through again but we dropped the ball and the Medicals centre picked it up to run 80m untouched for a back breaking score.

We were all over Medicals for the last 10 mins of the first half but our attack lacked accuracy and our opponents defence was resolute on their line again and again. Shaun Stewart did kick another penalty after big hit and turnover from Darren Kelly. Half time 10-9 to Medicals despite our complete dominance in the first half.

The second half was a real roller coaster as we had some early pressure but the Medicals 13 bust a tackle and went in for a soft try to extend their lead to 15-9. We then sustained some injuries as Rich Harrison sustained a suspected broken jaw in a tackle. Then Ben Merrett also sustained a heavy knock after being wrong footed before contact. We didn't seem to recover from this as Medicals scored a good try, kicked a penalty and a well struck drop goal. Suddenly, Medicals seemed to have raced to a 28-9 lead despite us dominating possession and territory.

We set up a nervy ending for Medicals after their back rower was yellowed for a pretty bad tip tackle. George Bambrick scored after a line out was driven in and Shaun Stewart added the conversion from the corner. Then with the last play Sam Devey raced in for his first Novos try after an 80m run. However, there was not enough time to kick off and we had lost 28-21.

Thank you to Graham Crozier, especially regards to looking after our players as he stopped play on each occasion we had a head/neck injury to one of our players.

Congrats to Medicals - thought your defence was nothing short of outstanding and the foundation for your win. You were much tougher up front this season compared to last and your 8 and 13 had some big moments in the game.

Our lads, we need to look after our injured players - best wishes to Rich Harrison who remained in hospital overnight with a broken jaw. In addition, we hope that Ben Merrett, George Bambrick and Christian Selkirk can recover quickly from their injuries.

I thought we lacked accuracy and balance in attack and went flat after Harrisons injury - understandably perhaps. It was great to see the group fight back to get a losing bonus point with the last play.

Man of the Match - Darren Kelly
Richard of the Day - Ben Wollerton

Next week we have Consett who have come back down from the league above us. Recent history has provided some epic games against them, most of which we have come out on the right side of things.

Congrats to the 3's had a great result in beating Medicals 3's in the cup and well done to the 2's who had a narrow loss to Percy Park 2's.

Onwards