Rovers 2's 19, Novos 2's 5 - Spirited Effort

The rain had been horrendous on the way down to Rovers and we arrived minus Isaac Robinson and no scrum half due to a cry off. Not a great start to the day but Harry Armstrong stepped up to claim the 9 shirt rather than freeze on the bench. In addition, Tim Hart had managed to move things around to join the squad.

Novos kicked off with the wind at their backs but that was were the kicking stop - the boys showed great ambition to try and move the ball on a very heavy pitch. Our opponents were a lot heavier up front which caused us issues at scrum time but the boys were competing well around the park.

Rovers carried hard and in the early exchanges they were smashed back by Harry Armstrong getting some great hits in. In addition, Josh McFarland, Louis Matthews and Alex Horne worked tirelessly around the park. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of competition allowed at the breakdown - a common trend at the moment I feel.

We had several opportunities to score after breaks by Ben Kelly, Sam Bird and James Jones who was on debut. However, we were unable to make the most of our chances and failed to trouble the scoreboard. Rovers defended well on their line and had some decent players on display including a few recognisable faces - 10, 6 and a young centre who were excellent throughout. On the back of a couple of penalties Rovers went down our end and scored with their first real chance of the half. Novos down 7-0 at half time.

All the bench on as per Half Game Rule with debuts for Tom Taylor and a return from injury for Ben Forbes.

Rovers heavy pack were on top in the early exchanges and they score two tries to extend their lead to 19-0. The Novos boys never gave up and finished the game on top. We scored after a break by Ben Kelly who put in Sam Bird for fine counter attack try. We had the edge on them out wide throughout the game but it was a day when those kind of things didn't matter.

The game finished 19-5 to a deserving Rovers side who revelled on the heavy pitch. Big shout out to Tom Dias and Gus Graham who did 80 mins in the front row. Huge work rates on display from the back row and second row throughout the game. Harry Armstrong filled in admirably at 9 and I thought Ben Kelly was excellent throughout. Not a great day to play in the back three but Dylan Murphy had nice moments with each touch of the ball and James Jones looks a quality addition to the club.

Thank you to Steve for reffing the game - did well on a horrible day where at times you could only tell who was who once they started running towards a try line. Would like to have seen more competition allowed at the break down but the game was safe and the right team won.

Well done Rovers - thought your ten was very influential, the centre (21) was a handful with great feet and real pace and your back row carried well. I look forward to seeing some of these lads again in a few weeks when we travel down with our first team. Think we will have to find some heavy lads when we next travel down the A19.

Novos - see you on Tuesday. Cohesion is a very important thing in rugby so get to training - noticeable that the line out didn't work as well as it should have. Can get that right this week and head into another cup game on Saturday ready to get the win.

Man of the Match - Harry Armstrong
Richard of the Day - Gus Nye

Up the Vos !