Great Effort, Little Reward

Novos went into this match having gained 8 pts in their last two matches. However, as has become common place at times this year - unavailability hit us hard. Over 20 first/second team squad players unavailable including regulars such as Steve Neill, Jack Spoor, Jim Higginson all on the long term injury list. Added to this were other regulars Shaun Stewart, Alex Littlefair, Josh Stacey, Michael Baker, Michael Reidy, Jonny Ward, Richard Dodds and Josh Igoe.

So we ventured down the A19 to take on a strong Rovers side, with the confidence of the last two matches behind us.

Early exchanges were pretty even but Rovers were much better at maintaining possession as we made several handling errors. This was a pattern for the first half as we kicked away too much ball and then dropped it just when we were looking to pile on some pressure.

Rovers did create chances and despite some solid goal line defence we would have conceded more than the halftime score of 0-15. Wo we turned round with the wind in our favour thinking that we just need to start playing the Novos way.

Good advice as we made a few line breaks after the kick off, recycling play we poured into the Rovers 22m. After some persistent pressure Sean Ramsay crashed over for his first Novos try. Rover up 15-5.

The battle for possession continued as Sean Ramsay and Ben Merrett turned over ball at will. Added to this we were starting to carry well, led by Jake Pickering. Also, Jan Safranek was looking a handful from fullback. However, at key times we continued to cough up the ball by way of an error or the odd intercept.

To their credit Rovers continued to make breaks, mainly by their elusive full back. They too carried well in the second half via some heavy ball carriers. During these times they were able to extend there lead back to a somewhat flattering score line.

The lads really put in a massive effort and it was perhaps the amount of changes that caused us to lack cohesion at times. We all put in a shift for the shirt on our backs and should be proud of our discipline, turnovers on our goal line and efforts at training during the week.

We have a much needed day off next week, which sees our 2nd and 4th xv's play cup semi finals. Training this week will concentrate on preparing them for these massive matches.

Then we have a tough run of matches where we will try and pick up the odd bonus point to secure survival. Good news is the season is a week closer to finishing and we are still ten points clear of Ponteland and Bishop Auckland.