Novos hopes head west

Novos welcomed West Park Leeds to Sutherland Park, for the first league meeting between the two teams. Novos started brightly from kick off, and with the wind behind them, pressurised the Leeds line in the opening minutes. After some sustained pressure, the ball was spun out wide, for Janette Shaw to take a great line and crash over for the opening try, converted by Emma Nichol. Novos kept building in attack, with solid scrums from the forwards and the backs creating space out wide, but excellent tackling from the Leeds full back meant they were unable to get another score on the board. Instead, they seemed to relax a little, and some untidy work at the breakdown, gave Leeds possession, and their inside centre scored under the posts, converted by the full back.

A rushed clearance kick gifted possession to their full back, who outpaced the chasing defence, and although she was hauled down, managed to offload to the openside who raced in to score. The missed conversion meant the half time score was 7-12.

Despite starting the second half strongly, Novos found themselves behind the posts again after failing to react quickly enough to turnover ball, and the Leeds fly half squeezed over in the corner. This gave Leeds a boost and they pressed forward again in attack, and with Novos failing to make their first up tackles, they were on the scoreboard again through their full back.

With 15 mins left on the clock, Novos regrouped, and began to take control of the game again, with some great pick and goes making hard yards and sucking in defenders. Quick ball out to the blindside allowed Ruth Scott to make ground, and with a couple of show and goes, run in to the try line. The conversion by Emma Nichol made the score 14-22. With time ticking away, Novos again pressed for another score, and pushed Leeds into giving away penalty after penalty, eventually leading to their openside receiving a yellow card. Despite the advantage of an extra player, Novos were unable to make a difference to the scoreboard, being held up over the line twice by desperate Leeds defence. The final whistle blew with Novos having to settle for a losing bonus point, and knowing they need to keep their concentration for the full 80mins next week when they travel to league leaders, Waterloo.

Forward of the Match: Rachel Hayes

Back of the Match: Ruth Scott