What Can Happen Will Happen

First of all apologies for the inaccuracy in this report but as you will read it was no easy day at Sutherland Park however, is there ever ?!

Novos went into this game with momentum having won the second half last week against a good Darlington side. This despite five of that squad were unavailable for various reasons. On top of that there was at least 20 other players capable of playing in our first two teams unavailable to play !

So it was that a much changed Novos that ran out onto a hard and fast Sutherland Park. Ben Merrett had agreed to move from flanker to hooker ! Josh Stacey moved to second row in the hope that he and Luke Menzfeld could negate the weight on the right side of Consetts scrum. Dan Bollado continued in his new role of scrum half having moved from centre to fill a void in our squad. In the middle Matthew Kilgore stayed in the midfield backs after his success last week moving from the blindside. Finally, Harry Clark was making his league debut at centre despite being more akin to playing fullback ! So we anticipated a few teething problems early on with all the changes but this was not to be the case.

Novos were flying from the off tearing into Consett. All the early pressure came from the home side however it was from a Consett mistake that Novos scored their first try. A loose pass was scoped up by Harry Clark, he then ran 70m to score with his first touch in league rugby for Novos !

From the kick off we made a great break down the middle via a Bollado pass to Merrett. There were further line breaks by Clark, Jonny Ward which led to Novos adding two further tries before the break I think by Jack Spoor and Jonny Ward. I was unable to keep track of matters as in a crazy eight minute span we stretchered off Jack Spoor (knee) Josh Jones (knee/hip) and Shaun Stewart limped off with a suspected broken wrist !

Half time conference between coaches/captains and Tony Parlett (ref) resulted in an extended break which was needed whilst we took care of our dead ! Anyway think the half time score was 5-15 to us.

Second half underway and Novos were down to a squad of 15, nowhere to hide time to nut up or shut up ! Naturally Consett came in the game and caused us problems with their desire to spread the ball from side to side. Thankfully, they could not finish off tries despite numerous line breaks against a now tiring defence. Consett scored a nice try, kicked a penalty and then scored a soft try. Consett up 18-15 with about 20 mins to go.

Novos responded well again despite not having the ability to recharge via substitutes. This time it was Rich Harrison crossing the line to restore our lead to 20-18. However, the lads were starting to tire as our heavy lads were unable to be rotated as per last week. Consett put a load of pressure on thru good play and a few penalties. This resulted in an unconverted try to but Consett ahead with less than five minutes to play 25-20.

A quick chat under the posts to gather ourselves for one last push. Both sides had some chances but it was Novos that made the telling break. A cut out pass found Harry Clark just outside our own 22m line, Harry beat a couple of defenders and then off loaded to speedster Jonny Ward. Off he shot too quick, leaving Consett players on the floor in his wake, in under the posts with the conversion added by Clark. Novos up 27-25 with two mins to play.

Another quick chat about whoever wins the kick off will win the game. Ball in the air and Luke Menzfeld lept high in the air ?? and was hit by a Consett player giving us what was a rather soft penalty. From the lineout Novos put their drive into gear and marched Consett 20m down field only for them to sack the maul. Resulting penalty kicked into touch for the win !!

Our best wishes go out to our injured players and thanks to Lex Leonard and John Portsmouth for going on the bench at short notice. Also, best wishes to the Consett lad who possibly dislocated his shoulder.

Thanks to Tony Parlett for taking control of what was a good game despite its stop start nature due to some major injuries. Never an easy fixture to ref as a few words were exchanged between the teams at various stages.

Next for us is training this week at Druids with Rob Vickers as we seek to improve our ball winning ability even further. The scrum already looks so much stronger than it has in the past year or two. Then its Blyth at home in a game that is very winnable if we can continue or momentum from the last three halfs of rugby.

See you all at training.