Bad Day Out At Blyth

A strong squad travelled to Blyth for the first fixture of 2015. Blyth looked to have a much stronger squad from our comfortable victory over them at Sutherland Park.

We started well as Blyth kicked away possession. On one occasion, James Bass fielded the ball and thru a huge cut out pass to Jonny Ward. As usual Ward made a break and then after some fantastic support play and handling, Rich Harrison went over to make it 5-0 to Novos.

The game itself was very even as Novos lineout was working well with new signing Kit Sorenson securing ball at will. Our scrum was steady despite the heavy second row we were up against. That was perhaps where the equality ended as Novos were to get the first of their three yellow cards on the day. Ward rightly carded as he knocked down a pass, card issued and a penalty try. Blyth were good enough to kick behind Novos back 2 for the next ten mins and scored a fine try as we missed a few tackles on their strong running winger. Blyth up 19-5.

More issues as prop Luke Menzfeld was badly cut in contact resulting on us putting our front row replacement on. Tommy Goodman kept the scrum steady in partnership with his Scarborough mate Josh Stacey. However, the scrums went uncontested when Pete Twentyman received our second yellow for being offside at a ruck. Blyth again converted the man advantage and went 24-5 up.

Weaker sides would have rolled over but Novos actually managed to get back into the game on the back of a fine finish from Peter Kay and then again via Matthew Kilgore. Game on as Twentyman re-entered the fray at 24-15, contested scrums again. No chance ! With ten mins to play prop Tommy Goodman received a yellow card for diving on a ball which came out of the ruck, uncontested scrums again and Novos down to 14 again until the final whistle.

Blyth made the most of the mismatch in numbers as they went in twice for a rather flattering 36-15 win.

Novos could only blame themselves for the defeat as we dropped the ball twice in our 22m which led to two Blyth scores, missed some straight up tackles for their winger to score and then thru an intercept for the final try. Perhaps we should be pleased that we gave Blyth a contest in a match when our momentum was checked three times by yellow cards.

Thanks to Tony Manley for reffing the match.

Hopefully this report has been a bit more detailed in explaining the reasons why the game went uncontested - due to a prop receiving a bad cut then two of our props receiving yellow cards afterwards.

Next week we play Guisborough at home and also try to put out four sides again ! So it's all hands on deck at training and for the matches on Saturday. Good news from Saturday gone was that Shaun Stewart came thru the match, Jez Nash and Jack Spoor played for the seconds as we look to get some key players back from injury in the coming weeks.

Tuesday we are at Druids with a session run by Falcons non drop kicking front rower, Rob Vickers ! Get on down.