Westoe 2nd XV 14 - 20 Novos 2nd XV

The Super 2s registered their first win of the season with a dogged performance against a formidable Westoe pack in a tropical storm with a boat load of injuries.

Novos were forced into a few changes after an encouraging performance against Blaydon the previous week. The forwards saw Calum Hoy (Juice), Shaun Stewart (The Nose) and the mighty Josh Floyd (Taff) come in to consolidate a strong pack, whilst the backs had more of the reshuffle where youth was the order of the day (obviously excluding Matthew Bradford and Luke Mitchell). Alex Milton retained the skippership, with our esteemed captain Ben Melrose clearly not content with getting his white shorts dirty, naming himself on the bench (praying the he would forget to put himself on).

Sadly we were late leaving Novos, as the backs needed to do their make up for the team photo, as well as Callum Hoy turning up late, and further proving he could get lost in a cupboard. Further fines were issued to Juice for; despite being late, deeming he had enough time for a “cheeky Subway”.

To the match.

The game started with Westoe very much on the front foot with their strong runners carrying hard, however Novos defence was more than equal to it, repelling wave after wave of hard lines. It was Novos ill-discipline that kept the pressure on, conceding 15 penalties in the first half, however Westoe still couldn’t get over the line despite having a more superior scrum.
Novos had proven dangerous on the counter attack showing the backs had brought their playing boots. One such counter attack from turnover ball in the 22, saw an overlap develop and Luke Mitchell almost put James Bass in for a 50 metre sprint, luckily Bassy was wise to this and cleverly overran the pass.
This saw the change in the momentum, as Novos started getting more and more of the ball in good areas. Westoe conceded a penalty which was just stroked wide by Stewart, however it was clear that Westoe were leaving big gaps in the midfield and the island ball exploited that. Shaun Stewart again making the first line clean line break of the day, was able to offload to Jack Spoor who didn’t quite at all have the legs to finish it off, however the ball was spun left and another half break was made before Hoy crashed over from short range. 5-0.
The monumental effort in the pack for the first twenty was beginning to show, with the first wave of injuries taking hold. The talented Matt Barraclough was followed off the pitch by Hoy, who is the youngest person ever to have a varicose vein. This meant the line out was compromised with no thrower or front jumper; however Novos battled on, with the help of a replacement front rower from Westoe. Not until Josh Floyd, who has had his head between his legs more times than a Thai contortionist, sustained a scrummaging injury were we forced to uncontested scrums.

The first half continued to be well matched, however the Novos defence was on fine form, with big hits coming in from Josh Floyd, Euan Binmore, with special mention to Nick Byre for the finest tackle of the match on Westoe’s large number 8, who looked bewildered when he was chopped at the ankles by the 17 year old. More on him later.
In attack Novos also looked dangerous with a number of line breaks from 1 to 15, however similarly to last week the last pass wasn’t quite there. Enough phases were put together for Westoe to concede a penalty at the break down and Shaun Stewart slotted the kick to bring the half time score to 8-0.

Half time saw Melrose coming off after 2 minutes for a blood bin substitution with Binmore who tried to give Jan Safranek a kiss during a double tackle.

The second half was dominated with Westoe Possession, but similarly to their first venture into Novos territory they came up against robust defence.

Novos themselves struggled for territory due to a patched up line out, which changed every few minutes. However Novos did look to exploit broken play on the counter attack, with Luke Mitchell making some trademark mazey runs from loose kicking. However the second try showcased the Novos colts. Starting with Will Doyle securing a superb turnover, the ball was then spun out to Lewis Chater who broke the line with ease and looked to be home free, however he was dragged down at the last moment but not before he offloaded to Nick Byre who ran the perfect support line from his wing to dot down. It certainly made the older members of the team feel redundant. 13-0
The Novos line up was unrecognisable at this point, with Bradford at Six, Melrose at five, Stewart at ten, and Binmore at twelve (clearly a prop). However despite this Novos could maintain the pressure and secured another kickable penalty to essentially seal the game. What followed was bizarre to say the least, as Stewart hit the post with the kick which rebounded back to him, which inadvertently put Novos in a try scoring position, as James Bass was standing on his wing with no one in front of him, Shaun picked out the perfect pass… to Mike Cousins standing behind the fence off the field. However Westoe fumbled their clearance kick, which allowed Stewart to put Jan under the sticks from the following scrum. 20-0
Westoe did battle until the end and poached two tries in the last quarter to bring the score to 20-14, however Novos looked comfortable throughout.

There were a number of standout performances in a very physical match. A big mention has to go to Josh Floyd who came in at the eleven hour to rekindle his love for the front row, as well as putting in a great shift in the loose.
In the backs a lot of credit should go the parental figures of Bradford and Mitchell who kept the young’uns right. Lewis Charter marshalled the game with maturity and looked a constant danger. The centre partnership of Binmore and Safranek was rock solid and neutralised a strong Westoe midfield. However the star man was Nick Byre who proved allusive in attack and formidable in defence, and well deserved his man of the match award and a pint of lemonade.

Bring on next week as the Super 2's take on Horden away!!!!

Jack Spoor