Novos go 9 clear at the top!

On Friday night Novos had a squad of 21 players and were wondering if we needed to drop some players down, By Saturday Morning they were down to 17 thanks to some injury cry offs, Alex Hind duly called up from the 3rds to cover the bench after some very positive reports.

The Novos side beared little resemblance to the side that won convincingly over Berwick last week, Martin Blight, Will Trick, Dan Turnell, Alex Hind, Rich Harrison all making debuts in the pack and Chris Ogle and Sean Lightfoot drafted into the front row. Still the squad looked talented enough even though with so many new players it would be tough and there was concern over how this new look squad would gel.

For the initial 25 minutes, it didnt gel at all, Novos were sleepy at the breakdown and lethargic in defence - the team didnt know each other and it showed. Medicals raced into a 15 point lead through their pacy backline via a penalty and 2 tries. Novos were constantly under the cosh and all the signs pointed to a heavy defeat.

Sometimes one moment can change a game and the moment came on roughly 25 minutes, Martin Blight took a pass deep in Novos half and set off on an incredible run, swatting defenders away for fully 30 yards before an offload to Simon Ayre set the scrum half away to open Novos account. This one moment of skill turned Novos around and they seemed to click from that point. Medicals defended out the half and Novos were unfortunate to lose hooker John Addison to a harsh yellow card for 10 minutes before half time.

Novos turned around still very much in the game at 7-15. The second half was a totally different game to the first, Novos scored a peach of a try when more excellent driving forward play, with the back row of Trick, Turnell and Blight at the heart of it all, created space, Dickinson made space for Will Trick to smash through would be tacklers to score from a penalty move (Coach Addison, employing some clever reverse psychology tactics by screaming for the team to take 3points, knowing he would be ignored and they would go for the try... Very astute!)

At 15 - 14 down, Novos were now looking to avoid copying Wales earlier exploits and they were dealt a blow when a rare Medicals foray into Novos 22 gave them a penalty and earned Mike Williams a very harsh yellow card, much to the chagrin of the Novos crowd (We still dont know wht he was binned for!). Medicals took the three points on offer as well 14 - 18 with 15 to go

Alex Hind and Rich Harrison joined the action and their impact was immediate, Alex buzzing around and tackled and carried well and Rich Harrison looked an astute stand off with a good reading of the game - Im lead to believe that he is the son of ex-novos great Don Harrison whose pomp was in the 80s - I will confirm this!

Jack Watkins scored from a barnstorming break to give Novos a slight lead with 10 minutes on the clock and he repeated the trick moments later, this time it was brilliance from Richard Moat who broke wide before offloading to Watkins on the loop to score the 4th try and thus gave Novos a bonus point win, denying Medicals even a losing point to give them a handy 9 point cushion at the summit of the league.

Alickadoos corner was full of praise for the 2nds, 'That was an entertaining game, the back row were well balanced and played very well against a good Medicals side, it was good to see!' commented Oggie Wright after the game.

Next week Novos travel to Consett who are always very tough opposition, especially at their home ground, it will be interesting to see how they faired against Blyth this week.

If this 2nd team pull together, get training and get the same 15 on the pitch week in week out they will take some stopping!