Trick or treat on the Berwick Bound Banter Bus.

The People's Republic of Novos 3s made the trip up the A1 to face Berwick along with the travelling support of Taylor, O'Connell, Cousins and the Novos legend Mr Willis.

All were fresh faced and bushy tailed for the lunchtime meet...all apart from JP Addison, who's exploits on Friday night came back to haunt him, and a rather fragile Shaun O'Connell, who looked a dodgy shade of grey.

As the bus progressed North, the rather sheepish statement of "gonna be sick" sent the passengers scurrying for a bin liner to which O'Connell promptly vomited into...thankfully the bus driver had the opportunity to pull in so Shaun could sort himself out.

Once in Berwick, after a good warm up, Novos took to the field attacking right to left after loaning Berwick a player.

Berwick looked to utilise their big tight head who took pleasure in running the ball up the midfield and after a good period of defence, Novos had a penalty which was nudged inside the Berwick 22 by Colm O'Keeffe.

Novos secured the ball from line out and Ian Pratt found himself galloping to the line, only to be pinged for an errant elbow, justified after match as "a stiff arm".

A scrum was called following a Berwick knock-on. Novos did well against the larger Berwick pack, then following a lovely pick and go by Pratt, offloaded to O'Keeffe, to J. Marshall (his only backwards pass of the game) and he fed Hopkins for the first try of the game, scored under the posts. Conversion added.

Berwick 0 - 7 Novos.

After some back and forth play, Novos strung together a good series of attack leading to D. Marshall sprinting away to score. Conversion added.

Berwick 0 - 14 Novos.

Novos found themselves pinning Berwick behind their 10m and an attempted chip through was collected by D Marshall who fed Alex Hamard for the first of his 3 tries.

Berwick 0 - 19 Novos

What ensued from Novos was some promising attacking play, if not for a certain Hopkins not choosing to offload and getting snotted by the Berwick defence.
A good contest at the ruck enabled Michael Berrett to snipe around the fringe and looked to ship wide, however a knock on at 12 brought the attack to an end.

Novos scrummage was excellent all game and a turnover ball in the row led to Kim Jong Pratt crossing the line under a pile of bodies.
Conversion added.

Berwick 0 - 26 Novos.

Novos scored 3 quick tries leading up to the end of the half through Gardiner and Hamard x2 to complete a first half hattrick.

Half time score Berwick 0 - 47 Novos.

In the huddle, the discussion of work rate and respect were bandied around, keep the pressure up, however it was Berwick who came storming out of the blocks in the 2nd half. Making a lot of ground the the middle and putting in brilliant hits.
The comedic sight of John Marshall tripping over his own feet whilst powering forward was perhaps a highlight of a mediocre second half performance ...was it the fact he tripped over his own feet? Was it the fact he tried to side step and realised he needed the toilet as he proclaimed to on the bus on the way up? I think it was more a brilliant tap tackle from the Berwick defence...either way, he went Base over Apex to the sound of laughter from the touchline.

Novos again regained possession with ball in hand allowed Hopkins to storm forward to offload to the supporting Michael Berrett who crossed the line.

Berwick 0 - 54 Novos.

Rugby, as we all know, is a fantastic game full of sledging and mick taking, one such instance was Mark 'What Does The Fox Say' Hemmings making his first EVER tackle in a Novos shirt which drew gaps from the increasingly inebriated touchline.
Shortly after, O'Keeffe scored a brilliant team try.

Berwick 0 - 59 Novos.

From the restart, Berwick began to bully the somewhat sleep Novos squad and from a rolling maul, scored a well deserved try in the corner.

Berwick 5 - 59.

My notes are somewhat diminished at this point however I have noted that Berwick were further down on the field of play, losing their number 21 to what appeared a nasty dislocation to his shoulder.
Following a brief discussion with a Berwick player, it turns out that this was his first EVER game of rugby. All at Novos wish him a speedy recovery.

From the restart, Novos again found themselves in midfield and a powerful run from James Craven saw him score just to the left of the posts.

O'Keeffe steps up for the conversion and rattles the post, only for the ball to rebound in front of him. In a moment of comic brilliance, he proceeded to pick up the ball and attempt to run in a try.
The referee at this time looked bemused by the angry Irishman's actions, and normality was brought back by a Berwick player somewhat loudly telling O'Keeffe "it's not a penalty ****head".

Berwick finished the game with a penalty with the last play.

Berwick 8 - 64 Novos.
By Mike Cousins