Match Report - Cup Semi Final

This week Novos hosted Whitley Bay Rockcliff in the Junior Cup Semi-Final, as the headline match of an afternoon that saw also Novos 3’s take on the Parisian Leopards in a friendly, and Novos 4’s face Tynedale Vets in another Semi-Final.

Novos set about their warm up quietly and focused, and opted to attack with the strong wind behind them in the first half, and quickly set about asserting their dominance on the game. Novos didn’t have to wait long to get their first points with Sean Ramsay making a break in the Rockcliff half to put James Bass in the corner for his first of the day. Shortly afterwards Scott Elliott made a break of his own from fly-half and score under the posts, converting his own try to take the score to 12-0 after 10 minutes. Novos battled hard with Ramsay and Ben Merrett forcing a number of turnovers, which eventually put Oli Baines in for Novos’ third try of the day after a good break by Euan Binmore, which Elliott was able to convert. It wasn’t long before Merrett danced his way through the Rockcliff defence to make it 24-0, and almost immediately from the kick-off, Binmore was able to take the ball out wide and carry in from almost the half way line for his first try of the day. Just 10 minutes later Novos scored again, with some excellent hands from Merrett to put Elliott through for his second of the half. Excellent defence from the Novos back line kept Rockcliff at bay, and on the stroke of half time Scott Elliott ran in for his hat-trick, which was converted by Bass to make the score 41-0 at half time.

The second half saw Novos attacking into the strong wind, however with their confidence high they refused to go easy and quickly scored the first point of the half with Bass showing his pace to run in for his second of the day, which he converted himself. The match then began to lose its structure as Novos were repeatedly penalised for infringements, despite Merrett disagreeing with the referee’s decisions, and they were soon down to 14 with Alex Milton sent to the bin for the sides repeat offences. Just three minutes later he was joined also by Oli Baines, again for repeat offences, however even with just 13 on the pitch Novos battled to keep Rockcliff out with the rest of the forwards working solidly to bring down the bigger Rockcliff pack. While still with two players in the sin bin, Novos were able to score a strong contender for try of the season, with both forwards and backs linking up beautifully and some fantastic handling to allow Binmore to score his second of the afternoon and make it 53-0. Unfortunately just before Novos were returned to full strength Rockcliff refused to back down and were rewarded for their perseverance as they barrelled over the Novos try line to pick up their first points. It was Ben Parkinson that closed proceedings with his first try for the club, running a great line from full back which, after another conversion from Bass, took the final score to 60-5.

Many thanks to Rockcliff for such a brilliant fixture and for fighting until the end, and congratulations to Novos 2’s for a fantastic performance. Well done in particular to Scott Elliott and Ben Merrett, and especially to man of the match, Sean Ramsay for an exceptional display at 7.

Novos 2’s will play in the final of the cup on Sat 12th April, at a venue tbc.

Well done Novos!