Novos 3s out muscled by Blaydon

Novos Development team hosted Blaydon Bricks on the first team pitch in confident mood following last week’s win.

The squad on Friday was 21 by kick off the squad was down to 17 due to cry offs and no shows.

Novos started well receiving the kick off and for the first 5 minutes dominated the game event pushing the far bigger Blaydon pack back in a couple of scrums.

Blaydon went on to get the first score with picking and going from some poor penalty decisions, the conversion was missed.

Novos had the chance to get back into the game when they got a penalty just outside Blaydon’s 22; Gregg Humphreyson narrowly missed the kick.

5 minutes later Novos levelled the scores up, after Blaydon backs dropped the ball centre James Weaver hacked the ball forward raced forward picking the ball up to score to the left of the posts. Humphreyson missed the conversion.

Novos tried to gain the lead but Humphreyson missed another tough penalty kick.

The game was an even contest but following some strange penalty calls Blaydon regained the lead through a crash ball penalty out wide, conversion missed 5-10.

Novos got back into the game following some magic by snake hips Oliver Dearden who collected the ball on the halfway line jinked past 4 tackles speed away before putting Joe Carr away in the corner. When Joe catches the ball in that position it only ends up with one result try time. Conversion missed 10-10.

Novos we then dealt a double blow when Michael Parking went off with a nasty ear injury and James Forbes was sin binned for being in a ruck.

Stevie Thompson came on for Parkin with back row Hugh Tatlow moved into the centres from openside.

Novos played out the next 5 minutes without many alarms until Blaydon got another fat lad try just before the break 10-15 at half time.

Novos started the second half well and scored through Anthony Graves who collected the loose ball from a lineout in the Blaydon 22 to jog over in the corner. Conversion missed 15-15 game on.

James Forbes came back on, Neil Venables moved to the back row to accommodate him.

Blaydon then scored following the ball being thrown back into a ruck, which is illegal but the try stud, conversion in front of the posts missed.

Novos were working hard but now were struggling to win the ball in scrums and lineouts, which meant Blaydon started to dominate possession.

Blaydon score again following a forward pass, conversion missed.

Novos were still dangerous when they got the ball in open play and were still in the game.

Chris Brown came on in the row for Anthony Graves.

From a scrum that Novos won on half way skipper Ian Pratt broke down the blindside, he drew his man and put scrum half Tom Burford into space, who feed winger Dan Charlton. Charlton was eventually stopped in the Blaydon 22 when he was bundled into touch.

In the last two minutes following some poor tackling Blaydon’s winger powered over in the corner, missed conversion 15-30.

Novos aim was to get the last score, from the kick off the ball looked like it was going dead until fullback David Marshall used his pace to catch the ball one handed before it went out and charged up the line. Novos kept possession well for the next 4 minutes following a series of penalties but were twice adjudged not to have crossed the line, the ball was eventually lost and kicked dead.

The game was lost despite lots of hard work from all players against a very big team from Blaydon, who’s development game was called off on the morning. #justsaying.

There are lots of positives to take into the next game away to Ashington. There were excellent performances all over the pitch, Oliver Dearden was excellent all day, and Chris Brown made good tackles and got to all of the rucks when he came on. Man of the Match was new player Huw Tatlow who was immense all game, tackling everything and carrying the ball strongly.