Peth prosper on plastic pitch

09/01/16 - Morpeth Edwardians vs Novos Development

Novos Development or Pratts Army kicked off their 2016 with an "away" game vs Morpeth. Ironically due to the poor weather the home side actually had further to travel to the rearranged venue at Druids park. Before kick off both sides conducted a perfectly observed minutes silence to honour the sad passing of Novos legend Geoff Parkinson. Geoff was a lovely gent who always had time for all players. He will be a huge miss to all associated with the club.

A few changes to the Novos team for 2016. Gus Graham started his first game since 2014 at loosehead with the return of our very own Gimli Craig Paterson at tighthead. Joe Carr continued to learn the dark arts of the 2nd row after has return from ashington while Andy Gardiner returned at 6 (no idea where he had been). In the backs a late reshuffle was required due to a joint Marshall lateness (10mins before kickoff!!!) with Lex Leonard moving to fullback and Zach Hui starting in the centre to make his 3rd team debut (after having been in the squad but only ever playing for opposition short of numbers).

The warm up and pre match chat was perhaps a little light hearted considering we were playing top of the league. However at least we knew exactly how the ball would bounce and run thanks to Ollie Deardens unnatural knowledge of the surface. Or so we thought...

The first half kicked off and seemed to start very well with the Novos pack shunting back the much larger Peth side on their own ball. However that was the highlight of the first half as Novos forwards forgot how to ruck and maul and all 15 of us forgot how to tackle. With no clean ball the backs were unable to get any go forward but also contributed to the poor performance with some aimless kicks and poor passing. We proceeded to do what we all said wouldn't when having a pop at each other after every mistake. Quite simply an awful first half all round as Morpeth showed why they are top of the league running in 26 unanswered points with their 9 and 13 looking particularly impressive. Jack Salt got to live his dream of playing at 8 for 5mins making a good carry off the back of a scrum. Perhaps if he trains instead of teaching his dog to close cupboards he may push our dear leader (check out the video it's on YouTube and really interesting.....zzzzzzz)

HRH Selkirk probably had the highlights of the first half firstly with a call of 'let it go' after a chip and chase from Morpeth which everyone left allowing the winger to sneak through and touch down. This was followed up by a quick kick off while most of the forwards were still making their way to halfway from under the posts. Obviously the blame for the try was on Ollie telling us that the ball would run out on every kick and the kick off was "to teach us a a lesson".

Halftime saw changes as we brought on the gas in the front row with o'connell and Sanderson coming on at prop. Due to injury we also saw Dave Marshall and his elusive running on the field as well as Greg 'Gus Graham' Humphreyson come on at 10 after the late cancellation of the 2s home game. Half time instructions were to win the 2nd half and Novos started excellently taking it to the Morpeth team. We must have started too quickly for young Shaun OC and he was crying out for water after 2minutes of coming on. Needless to say this was denied by the bench which prompted a reaction that may well have earned Shaun his diva award.

Novos really stepped up in the second half with 2 excellent tries from Lex Leonard running both in from some distance one after and excellent run from Dave Marshall. Marshall stepped up the pace and showed the dangerous running that was absent in the first half (please be on time next time Dave!). However his passing may need some work especially his wild throw up in the air after being boomed on the touch line! The Novos pack also shaped up and was camped in the Morpeth 22 for a good 10mins forcing their large tighthead off the pitch with an 'injury' to which an unsympathetic Jack Salt put down to being a pussy as he was getting dicked (in fairness this was backed up by the Peth 9 who confirmed he does it all the time!). Some other 2nd half highlights included Joe Carr tackling (yes really) and huge try saving tackling by our own French (or Sheffield if you are Burford) on the Morpeth prop. A couple of big carries from Graham Dearden and O'Connell also showed what could have been achieved if we hadn't waited for the 2nd half to play! We would have gone on to win the second half but a missed drop goal conversion from HRH in front of the sticks meant we settled for a drawn last 40.

A few positives to take into the next game: scrums were strong but more control needed, when we focused on playing rugby we looked an excellent side at times. Also debuts for Zach Hui and Ali Leveret. Early enforced changed also disrupted the side with Alex Fenwick going off with an ankle (apologies if wrong) injury and Justin Taylor going off with what I assume was period pains. On a more negative note things that have typified Novos teams in the past crept back in (bitching, too many voices, not enough action and a very slow start). These need to go if we want to push on to overtake Morpeth but there are signs that the team can really kick on and when it clicks will really put a big score on someone.

MOM - Zach Hui. An excellent debut in the 3s for Zach. Was put under pressure due to some great Morpeth kicking but stayed strong all game and looked good on the counter. In defence he put his body on the line and ended the day in the RVI to get stitched up.

Dick of the day - HRH Selkirk for 'leave it!!!', The lesson learning kick off and the miss in front of the sticks. (Don't worry Christian I'm sure in some way all of these were the forward fault) - You did win your race against Joe however although not sure how much of an achievement this is....

Diva - Shaun O'Connell for 'watergate'

Shit shoveler - D.Marshall

(Apologies for anything missed, with no note taker all this is from memory)
Gus Graham