An Away win at last!

Novos travelled across to Carlisle for their “local derby”. This was a game that they had targeted to win, after a comfortable win in the home encounter.

However, in the opening 20 mins it was the home side that were playing the better rugby, with strong direct running making ground through the Novos defence, and putting Novos on the back foot. Carlisle got the first score of the game, when their fly half jinked through the defensive line and outpaced the covering defenders to the try line.

This seemed to wake Novos up, and they began to work phases, with the forwards driving short and offloading to make ground. Novos first score came from a driving line out, which sucked in all the defenders, giving scrum half Steph Maddison space to run in and level the scores, making the half time score 5-5.

In the 2nd half, the forwards picked up where they had left off, and made their way up the pitch with a series of rucks and offloads, allowing flanker Janey Eccles to force her way over for a try, converted by centre Emma Nichol, taking the score to 5-12. Novos were back on the scoreboard a couple of minutes later, after a great break from full back Rachael Fleming, who was tackled short, but fly half Ruth Scott was in support to take the offload and score under the posts, again converted by Emma Nichol, making the score 5-19.

Novos seemed to grow in confidence as the half went on, and the forwards were playing superbly, really controlling the game. With great continuity, they made ground, sucking in defenders which allowed scrum half Steph Maddison to exploit a gap and score her 2nd try. Again, from kick off, Novos worked their way up the pitch and with the Carlisle defence rushing up, the ball was offloaded to 2nd row Hannah Pollard, who crashed through a couple of tackles to score. After a delay due to a Carlisle injury, there was still time for Novos to score once more. From a solid scrum, the ball was passed out to the backs, and although the ball went to ground, it bounced up nicely for replacement centre Helen Kane to crash straight through under the posts. The conversion by No 8 Fee Shanks brought the game to an end, with the final score 5-36.

Forward of the Match: Hannah Pollard

Back of the Match: Emma Nichol