Two teams, one club: defeats fail to overshadow a promising day for Novos ladies

Following on from the impressive performance of the development team, the senior team took to the hallowed Sutherland Park surface, with the development players taking their turn to applaud the team onto the pitch. From the whistle Novos dominated possession, with probing tactical kicking from Emma ‘rugby hater’ Nichol keeping Waterloo pinned in their half. Novos had come out firing, with quick hands from Amelia and Laura making yards down the right hand side. Despite this, the danger of Waterloo’s backs was clear when against the run of play, their excellent 14 blasted past several players around the outside to score under the post.

Stung by this, Novos again stretched Waterloo’s defence through Caitlin Morrell’s darts around the ruck and powerful runs from Nichol, Jess, Tash and Claire alongside solid work from Sarah ‘It’s never too warm to wear a woolly hat’ Marshall. The forwards maintained a stranglehold on possession, with Fran and Amelia pressurising any loose Waterloo ball, and Elle leading an almost untouchable line out. Waterloo, however, punished any mistake clinically, collecting a loose ball to score down the left hand side. Driving Waterloo back once more, following a missed penalty in the strong breeze, Novos came agonisingly short of scoring after a clever switch of play from Struth, with good runs from Fanny, Katie, and Mrs C also snuffed out just short of the line.

After a run of penalties, and a collapsed maul right on the line denying Chrissie Miller a deserved try, the yellow card had to come and Waterloo were down to 14. Agonisingly, after dominating the half, tired bodies left a gap the size of Fran’s damaged nostril and again Waterloo broke clear to score and finish the half 19 points up.

The second half started brightly with good work at the breakdown leading to Fanny ‘Interception Queen’ Fouin gathering the ball down the right wing and running home powerfully to get Novos on the score sheet. The joy was short lived, however, with Waterloo dashing hopes of a Novos comeback by breaking a couple of tackles and scoring a try down the left wing. Master tactician Ian ‘Guardiola’ Morallee made his first changes of the game in the forwards, bringing on Sarah Kilby, Ceri Storer and Jen ‘Kleenex’ Meaghs. But, before the new players could find a foothold in the game Waterloo notched up another try despite valiant tracking back by Mrs Coops. This was to herald further changes for the red, white and blacks with Chrissie, Elle and Mrs C making way for Cat Ingoe, Janey ‘Twinkle Toes’ Eccles and Flemdog (Mrs Rachel Bass…but Flemdog makes her sound ‘ard). This injection of fresh energy revitalised Vo’s for a period with strong running by Emma Nichol, some lovely footwork from Janey to try and find space through the Waterloo line and some hard yards by Katie Crute mopping up the Waterloo kick through while in an unfamiliar full back position. The rowdy home crowd enjoyed a comedic interlude as the Waterloo coach tripped on the medikit and did a full Tom Daley right in front of the balcony, graciously accepting to offered applause for her efforts. Unfortunately, the hard work Novos had put in during the match was beginning to tell and Waterloo ended the game with 4 quick fire tries, despite the efforts of Flem’s fresh legs trying to chase back, giving the scoreline a gloss rather undeserved by Waterloo. The disappointment of the Novos players and staff was palpable at the final whistle which is a testament to how far this team has come in only a couple of years. And one thing is for sure, Waterloo won’t be quite as confident leading into the reverse fixture later in the season…