Superb 3rds triumph again

Superb 3rds triumph again.

Saturday saw the increasingly successful 3s travel to face mid table Gateshead and with cup final positions up for grabs everyone was looking to give Kim Jong Pratt a selection headache.

The Front row lined up with Shaun O’Connell at loose head, the forever reliable Oliver Dearden at hooker and the experienced Andrew croft at tight head.

Second row saw the return of Kris ‘Haymaker’ Tenglesen and debutant Chris Brock.

The Back row of Dan Hips at openside flanker , Andrew Gardiner at blindside flanker and Ian “Kim Jong” Pratt number 8 looking to dominate around the park.

The glory boys lined up with Christian Selkirk, turning up for the 3rd week in a row sober!! At scrum half, at fly half was the unnaturally flexible Tom Wilson, at inside centre is the John ‘glass man’ Marshall at outside centre is hard hitting Tommy Wilson, the back 3 of Joe carr, new parent David Marshall and James weaver back after recovering from fall off a metro platform were all looking to cause havoc in open play.

On the bench were Nick Byrne, Tom Burford, Oliver Baines and Rob Strange

The game kicked off at 3 o’clock and it wasn’t long before Novos were on the score board, with Tom Wilson doing a low kick across the park which was well collected by David Marshall who handed it off to Joe Carr who picked the ball up well off his laces to go in for the first try of the game, conversion was made by David Marshall. But it didn’t last long Gateshead made the most of some bizarre circumstances due to the wind they scored in the corner to make it 7-5.

The next scoring play came through Novos with a high ball that Gateshead struggled to deal with and the ball ending up in Tommy Wilsons hands who crashed over under the posts, David converts to make it 2/2, 10 minutes before half time Oliver Dearden took a yellow card for the team after multiple penalties around the breakdown. Then 14 men 3’s extended there lead even more, after Mark Hemmings put in a huge tackle which caused a poor pass by Gateshead that James weaver reacted well to pick the ball up and go around the winger to score under the posts, David Marshall with the successful conversion 3/3. Half time 21-10 to vos.

The 2nd half vos started well and after a few phases of play the ball got passed out wide to O’Connell who some say produced the 2nd best assist of the season after his no look behind the back pass at blyth earlier on in the season. O’Connell passed a beautiful, pin point perfect miss pass to John Marshall who sidestepped the winger to score to make it 28-10. by this point novos were playing free running rugby stretching Gatesheads backs thin and with good running lines from Mark Hemmings saw him break the line from the half way line and almost butchering a 3 on 1 before somehow getting over the line and nearly forgetting to place the ball before finally wrestling the ball to the ground, on fire David Marshall makes it 5/5 for the conversions.

But vos didn’t want to stop there after a long build up with many phase the ball was passed out wide to debutant chris brock who ran a god line to crash over from a short distance, David Marshall 6/6.and to round off novos scoring mark hemming with another great line breaking into the Gateshead 22 now practically running in slow motion manage to bundle his way over for his 2nd try David Marshall made it 7/7 for 100% kicking on the day.

Novos showed a great performance all round apart from the 20 minutes where we allowed Gateshead to cross our line twice and with the cup final just around the corner it shows that we need to play for the full 80 minutes.

Mentionable performances go to the whole forward for the scrumaging which was on point against very good and experienced Gateshead pack also to Dave Marshall for 100% kicking and all round game 3 day after becoming a father for the first time (congrats) also to John Marshall for a good all round game.

Man of the Match: John Marshall
Tom Burford award: Kris Tengleson
Diva: Christian Selkirk
Poor pass: Shaun O’Connell

Match report by Shaun O’Connell