Novos 2nd XV 20 - 7 Medicals 2nd XV

The Super 2s bounced back from a disappointing week against Morpeth, to secure a place in, hopefully, their first cup final of the year, and a shot at their second piece of silverware in the season. The epitaph of the game would be “it wasn’t pretty, but it was very exciting” or “snatching victory from the jaws of defeat”, however I digress.

It was a largely unchanged squad that lined up with some notable exceptions returning to the team. There was a new look front row, with Luke Menzfeld (after receiving the blessing from the county) and Tom Dias, and Andrew Steinberg who combined to form a formidable front row. Greg Humphreyson, returned from 1st team bench warming to retain his stick mitted fingers on the 10 shirt. Also due to a manicure malfunction, Ben Melrose had to pull out of the match day squad hours before kick-off, sighting that his finger was simultaneously broken and not broken in the bizarrest injury claim to date. Luckily George Hazel was able to step in at the last moment to strengthen the centre partnership.

The meet time brought us tremendous sunshine and mild temperatures, however similarly to waking up after a heavy night, the pitch inspection showed the true extent of the damage from training that week, where some areas of pitch that were reminiscent of the Battle of the Somme, Matthew Bradford remembers it well.

With the majority of people arriving on time, and the warm up in full swing, we were only missing our international contingent, with both Josh Floyd and Brendan Thomas required to forcibly remove Ben Forbes from Tesco after getting over excited in the reduced section. Unfortunately, Brendan was unable to make his first start, and had to come on off the bench, which was apt and none of the Welsh team appeared to turn up for their first half either.

In the pre match huddle led by our new skipper Greg Humphreyson, there was talk on improvement on last week, better patterns of play, and having a clinical edge to blast a team off the park.

From the kick off we took two of those objectives to task, and showed phenomenal physicality from the off, as well as much more composure in retaining possession. We appeared to have the territory advantage however failed to achieve that clinical edge, with every half chance; lacking that final pass, or conceding penalties at the vital moment.

The first half appeared to have a familiar pattern of winning a penalty, kicking for the corner, coughing up/conceding possession for Medicals to clear their lines for them to concede a penalty further up the pitch. For that we could be accused of having naïve tactics, as our line out was not firing well to the credit of the Medical’s jumpers, and we seemed unwilling to up the tempo and move the Medicals defence around. In attack we appeared to rushed and lethargic simultaneous, and in defence our line speed and aggression was dropping as the half progressed.

However after 25 minutes there was break in the status quo, as Medicals conceded a penalty in their 22 and Greg Humphreyson kicked the Super 2s in to the lead.

We regained the territorial advantage but Medicals’ defence continued to frustrate us, with clean line breaks, and space at a premium. Only one stone wall chance comes to mind when Rob Murphy flanked by James Parkinson, and Matthew Bradford founded an empty blindside to run into with only the full back to beat. Rob did his finest deer in the headlights impression, with Parky deciding to cut a last minute inside support line which resulted in the pass flying majestically into touch. Even with the Medicals down to 14 men, we could break the deadlock before half time.

The half time talk was interesting within itself, as alongside the calls for patience and charity and the substitutions to inject more energy into the performance, was the Super 2s own PooGate scandal, as Tom Dias had to make an emergency substitution to make use of the facilities (him Father was seen cleaning out the drains later that day), much to the disappointment of Will Doyle who was forced on despite coming off with a dead leg, and Luke Menzfeld who believed the manly think to do was just to let nature take its course and continue regardless.

The second half brought a much improved performance, with forwards breaking the gain line, with great carries from Rob Murphy, as well as making themselves known in the collision with huge tackles coming from Curtis Walker and Luke Menzfeld. Greg Humphreyson also displayed some fine tactical kicking, and ensure we continued to dominate territory. We also started to be more pragmatic and began to implement our dominate scrum as an attacking weapon, which resulted in us finally scoring, with debutant Henry Forbes dotting down at the back of a scrum.

Medicals then came back into the game, and started making headway and winning penalties in dangerous areas. This finally resulted in a sin binning of our own, with Curtis Walker taking the fall. From the resulted phase of play a try was conceded, and the game was back on.

To the credit of the lads, they didn’t panic and immediately regained the momentum, however we seemed to get even closer to scoring than the first half, without success. Ben Forbes, who found great space down his wing, was involved in all three “almost” moments, which on another day could have easily been put to bed. However the persistence finally showed, as Rob Murphy picked and went and crashed over for the score, which was converted by Greg.

The floodgates opened somewhat then as a couple of minutes later, George Hazel stripped the ball from his opposite number and raced away for a 60 metre dash, selflessly stringing Morgan Faulkner along the whole way.

The Super 2s, similarly to the 1st team (who won their game against Middlesbrough with the last kick of the game), value every point that is scored and strive to maximise any opportunity by sinking the maximum effort and focus into any point scoring situation. This was epitomised by Greg Humphreyson’s final conversion attempt which dissected the try line and touch line with precision without reaching higher than 4 feet… a true consummate professional.

The final whistle greeted us with a 20-7 victory, and our first cup final of the season. Obviously it wasn’t a vintage performance, as there were long periods of dominating possession and territory with no points to show for it, and there appears to be too much coaching happening on a Saturday morning which simply should not be the case.

On a lighter note, there were positives to take out of the game both individually and as a team. Rob Murphy had his best performance in a Novos shirt, with some strong carrying and hard rucking and deserved his man of the match award. Similarly Curtis Walker played like a man possess with some incredible tackling, and deserved Rob’s man of the match award for being at the fines meeting. The scrum was a sight to behold with Luke Menzfeld, Tom Dias, and Andrew Steinberg deserving a lot of the credit. And despite conceding the try and a 20 minute period of indifference, our defence was strong, and ultimately won us the game.

With plenty of things to look forward to for the Super 2s, a semi final in the Candy Cup, a final slog to boost our position in the league, and a final on the 2nd April against Alnwick, there is plenty of reasons to be making the effort to train twice a week. Lets us enjoy the result and positives from the game but accept there is much room for improvement which comes from hard work in the midweek.

Jack Spoor