Highs and lows for Rockets at North Tyne Festival

In their next match against Morpeth Novos let themselves down with some poor tackling and were out played at the ruck, being turned over on several occasions. Sam Irons again led the way with a brace of tries, demonstrating great personal determination. Ryan Milburn stormed in from distance, brushing off would be tacklers to score. The try of the day was scored by Wesley Croom, who rounded off an outstanding team move which went the length of the pitch with Thomas Williams and Jarno Ambelez prominent in the move which saw some brilliant offloading. However the defensive frailties’ cost Novos and they ran out losing 4-5.

In the match against Tynedale Novos really upped the intensity of their game. Some outstanding defence, with Tom Steel and Sam Irons to the fore repelled the pacey Tynedale time and time again. Alistair Wilks was prominent in this match with a lot of strong running, the best of which saw him charge in through several tackles to score. Ryan Crossley who had been solid in defence all day finally got in on the scoring action, showing great determination to go through 3 Tynedale players to score – and celebrate in his usual cheeky way. In a tight match it ended honours even at 2-2.

Against Rockliff Novos played well, however were let down by poor decision making. In quick succession they threw away possession on their own line allowing Rockliff to score two very soft tries. Sam Ogilivie ran in a very good try from the wing showing a good turn of pace. Dan Neill also scored showing power to go over the line and Sam Irons scored as well, but Novos paid for their slack passing losing 3-4. Sadly this match also saw Wesley Croom injured with what was a suspected broken leg, pleasingly it didn’t turn out to be broken, but nevertheless Wesley was in a lot of pain and the sight of him being taken away in an ambulance was a distressing one for all the team, coaches and parents.

In the match against Alnwick, Novos started slowly. They were outrucked constantly as they lacked urgency and aggression at the breakdown. Tries from Ryan Milburn, Dan Neill and Sam Irons kept them in the hunt, but they ran out of time and lost 3-4.
Novos then played Northern and were slow out of the blocks with Northern scoring from the first whistle. Novos struggled to contain a rampant Northern who scored 7 tries with only outstanding personal efforts from Sonny McDonnell and Thomas Williams in reply.
In their final match Novos cut loose playing some outstanding rugby against Percy Park. Dan Neill, Sam Irons (2), Sonny McDonnell (2) and the silent assassin, James Hepburn all scoring in a match were Novos ran out 6-2 winners.

Overall a tournament of highs and lows for Novos, but lacking consistency.

Report for the Novos Rockets mixed ability team:

Played 6
Won 1
Lost 5
Tries for 24
Tries against 27

The final statistics look bad but there were some close games with the odd knock-on and missed tackle making the difference between winning and losing. I don’t think any of the team could be accused of lack of effort and I saw some flying tackles, determined runs and players actually looking before they passed. The boys, although disappointed, should be pleased with the way they played, fairly and with determination.

The first game against Ponteland 1 probably summed up why we lost games we could have won – rucking. We lost the ball in the breakdown on numerous occasions in each match and each turnover is a potential try. The other teams had obviously worked on the breakdown as the many shouts of “RUCK IT” from the sidelines proved. Casual observers may have thought the Rockets were yet to reach the part of the rule book containing the rucking laws.

Our game against Northern proved that tackling six foot beanpoles is not our strong point and despite being in the lead at half time we lost the game with missed tackles and losing the ball in the ruck. They also scored 2 tries from the kick off and this pattern continued through all the games. Perhaps we were too busy celebrating scoring and lost concentration.

Sorry I can’t mention everyone but here are the main points. Daniel G scored 9 tries and burst through on many occasions showing great determination and awareness. James (or JPL) scored 4 tries and must have been close to topping the tackling averages as well as the injury stats. Theo scored 4 tries and made some excellent strong runs. Alfie warmed up by the 4th game and started running with a little more confidence, scoring twice, once from his own line. Aidan tackled fiercely with one particularly superb try-saving tackle. Sam threw himself into tackles and supported well trying to be everywhere at once. Sam, Ben, Aidan and Findlay each scored a try.

A long day for everyone but the weather was great, there were smiling kids and parents and the day was well organised so a big thank you to Percy Park. There were a lot of minor injuries so a special mention to Fred who was a very busy paramedic.