Match Report

This week was to be Novos 2’s second trip to Northern of the season, and they had a point to prove after the previous result.

All was looking well on the Friday evening, but by the time kick-off arrived Novos suddenly found themselves rather depleted, and once again with players out of position.

Unfortunately there are few positives to mention from the 1st half, as Novos failed to switch on and step up to the Northern attack, who racked up 24 unanswered points by half-time.

The second half was a much more even affair, as Novos showed they were more than up for the fight. A brilliant link-up between Will Griffee and Dave Marshall saw them break the Northern defence and were able to put Michael Baker in for Novos first, and eventually only points of the afternoon. Novos battled on bravely, with the forwards working as hard as ever to ensure Matt Macauley and James Bass had good clean ball at the break downs. Some excellent defence on the Novos try line kept Northern out for the majority of the half, however Northern were just too strong and well organised, and were able to barge their way over for another try. The score remained the same for the rest of the match, finishing at 29-5.

A real game of two halves, and as always, plenty of positive play from Novos who showed a lot of grit and determination; however an inability to switch on and make critical tackles early in the game eventually cost them.

The pick of the forwards this afternoon was Andy Gardiner, who put in an even bigger shift than usual, while the Novos man of the match was Matt Macauley who, with just ten minutes before kick-off, was asked to play 9 and had an outstanding game.