Match Report

On a warm September afternoon, Novos set out to prove a point following last weeks heavy defeat to a powerful Blaydon and a narrow loss to Horden.

Ponteland were struggling for numbers and were 2 men short prior to kick off, with one finishing work early to play. Rather than dropping numbers and playing 14 a side, new signing Ben Forbes was asked to fill in, to which he duly obliged.

The Novos squad, without skipper Ben Melrose (who was away watching heavily armoured men grappling over a pig skin) spoke about putting a mark over the opposition from kick off, following two matches where we were asleep for 30 mins.

Ponteland won the toss and chose for Novos to attack into the sun.

Novos kicked the game off and quickly found themselves in possession, following a good series of attacking play, JP Addison created a great platform from a ruck for Mike Cousins to pick and go from 5m and score. The conversion was missed (a story that would bear its ugly head throughout the game).

Novos found themselves camped behind their 10m line, a clever break from one of Ponteland's back line resulted in a try under the posts that was converted.

A back and forth exchange ensued, Novos pressing hard, with number 8 Gav Evans running hard and making a nuisance of himself however discipline at rucks initially let Novos down and were marched back.

A scrum in Novos 22 which was won by Novos, as had many in the first 40, bizarrely led to Ponteland turning the ball over and racing away to score under the posts. Conversion added.

Jason Collum suffered a knock at this point and was replaced by ex 2nd team skipper Jamie Diggle, making a welcome return.

Halftime: Novos 5 - 14 Ponteland

Novos started the second half with aggression following the half time huddle.
Luke Toulmin, Tom Watts and Justin Taylor all came off the bench to inject some fresh legs into the side.

Novos stepped up into higher gears at this point, turning over balls at rucks, Alex Milton putting in great hits, and with tries ran in from their own half from Lex Leonard and Jamie Diggle. Neither try converted

Novos scrum, which had been dominant throughout the first half, seemed to suffer with Ponteland's replacement second row coming into the field and injecting a new found energy and Novos scrum started to go backwards.

Following more back and forth play, youngster Euan Binmore collected the ball and made a lung busting run down the pitch before offloading to Richie Mitchell for another Novos score, securing the bonus point.

A breakdown in Ponteland's half led to Jamie Diggle running 30 yards to pick and go and race towards the try line, beating several defenders in his wake to score under the posts. Conversion added to a roar from the balcony.

A bizarre kick from a Novos penalty led to a 22m drop out which Novos managed to retain and kept pressure on the line. JP Addison was the man at the base of the ruck, again to present the ball to Mike Cousins who was virtually unchallenged to walk over the line from 10m.

Flyers Diggle and Leonard added further tries to secure the win for Novos. Ponteland, who battled to the end, set up a driving maul at the the last play of the game and scored to end the game 39-19 to Novos.

Thanks go to Mike Barker who refereed and to Ben Forbes who stepped up to play for Ponteland and impressed his initial teammates.

Novos Alicks voted Lex Leonard as man of the match, narrowly beating Jamie Diggle to the acclaim.

Next week, Novos are away to Tynedale III's, a fixture that will be one of the toughest of the season. The Corbridge men are always a difficult outfit and Novos will hope for the same commitment at training that we have had at training in recent weeks.