Development team so close to another trophy.

Novos took a development side to the Northumberland 10s tournament to defend the trophy won last year by the senior team and came within a whisker of defending the trophy before losing out to eventual winners Morpeth.

The Northumberland RFU are working really hard to promote ladies rugby and this tournament saw attendance by the Local Universities and Morpeth as well as ourselves.

It was great to offer some game time to girls new to rugby and on this evidence we have some potential with players ready to make the step up in to the senior side for league and cup games coming up.

Game One – Novos 35 – Newcastle Uni 2nds 0

Novos started strongly in the first game scoring 7 unanswered tries against a developing Uni side made up of mainly new players for them, a brace from Cathy Foster, Promise Chapwanya and an Erin Walker try the highlight as this was their first points scored in a Novos shirt.

Game Two - Novos 15 Team Northumbria 0

Another strong display saw Novos go three tries up very quickly, but the game was called short due to an unfortunate injury to prop Heidi Munns… A nasty lateral ligament injury to her knee as she made a big strong carry from defence and her leg got caught under a tackle. No doubt this injury will keep her out of action for a while but hopefully will bounce back stronger as she was showing a huge amount of promise. It was also a huge turnaround because Novos had to play the remaining games with uncontested scrums, a Major advantage of the opening fixtures and not being able to compete for opposition put in probably cost us later in the tournament.

Game three – Novos 5 Newcastle Uni 1sts 5

Novos went ahead but conceded a late break away try to the students who played well throughout, The Posh had two Novos girls in their squad in Tasha Robson and Sarah Driver so there was plenty of banter including a ‘Smash Tash’ call. The smash went in from Tina Bousfield who was playing in her 1st competitive rugby match and is certainly proving one to watch as she has all of the attributes to develop into a very talented 2nd or back row player with a real physical presence. Great to see Laura Robins make a return to Novos colours as she arrived late from work and went on to show why she is too good not to be part of the squad and playing regular rugby, hopefully we will see more of her in the coming weeks!

Game 4 – Novos 5 Morpeth 10

Another game where Novos took the lead but couldn’t hold on, break aways for Novos wing Betsy Severs (Playing for Morpeth!) and a late last gasp try saw Novos tight grasp on the trophies in the local rugby scene end.

Game 5 – Novos 30 Sunderland Uni 0

Novos saved the best for last, scoring 6 unanswered tries against Sunderland Uni to ensure the runners up spot was secured.

Once again a performance from the development team to be proud of, but for a few bits of misfortune, would surely have walked away with the trophy again, The challenge now is to ensure fixtures are found for this squad so game time can be guaranteed for these up and coming players – Any fixtures welcomed!

Back of the Tournament – Cathy Foster – A couple of tries, strong tackling and absolutely keen as mustard to get involved, Cathy Even had a go at scrum half and proved that there is potential to adapt in a more technical position.

Forward of the Tournament – Tina Bousfield – A real physical presence and strong carrying and even stronger tackling – Definitely one to watch!