After the disappointments of last week's result tight 10-12 loss against top of the table, unbeaten Sunderland RFC, the squad through from 1-18 were more motivated than ever to get a result in front of a home crowd to right some wrongs against a Ponteland side we came up short against away from home.

It is always a physical affair whenever Ponteland come to town, and by the looks of things they had brought a full-strength side to come and play. Their position as the underdogs on the day worked out favorably for them in the opening 10 minutes. After being camped on the Novos 5 meter for some time, a series of pick and goes were repelled by the pack and eventually after some waiting, they spread the ball wide. Sam Busby, after only being welcomed back into the squad at the last minute, he made a brilliant try stopping tackle and won the resulting jackal penalty too.

After working our way back up the pitch a couple opportunities were not finished off in the way that Novos typically always would, however after working a penalty we opted to go for the sticks and whilst the attempt was wide the resulting 22 drop out gave us a prime attacking platform. Nice interplay from forwards to backs allowed Farley to throw the ball into space for none other than Sam Busby to storm onto. After beating two defenders it looked for all money like he was in for his record equaling try, but after a last-ditch tackle attempt stopped him, his offload found Ben Jubb on the inside to walk over the line after the full backs hard work.

The two sides would tussle back and forth for the rest of the half with neither team quite being able to execute properly. The ball was kicked out on the full and the second half eventually got underway.

The second half seemed to consist only of show stopping defensive hits by the likes of Michael Searle and Rob Baldwin and then line breaks from almost nothing in the wide channels from Lambert and Cleife. There seemed to be very little in-between as no team was able to string anything together and be clinical.

Controversy, as it always does would arise for the second score as what seemed to be an obvious knock on from the Ponteland center halted play from some Novos players, however nothing was called and play resumed as Ponteland managed to find themselves on our line. A yellow card for Jubb was brandished in the chaos for thinking the ball was out from a ruck and was deemed to be a cynical offense. The away side would opt to scrum with the extra man advantage, and were able to spin things round to grab an easy walkover try. The conversion was good, and the score stood at 7 points apiece.

The lads did well to apply pressure with a man in the bin and as the clock hit 80 minutes one final opportunity would present itself for the home side to snatch a victory. A lineout was secured and after a few phases, fly half Josh Farley gave the word to pull the trigger, the ball was pulled back about 30 meters from the posts. The ball was going over for all money, but a stray Ponteland fingertip made connection, knocking it off course. Ponteland booted the ball of the pitch and would settle for the draw.

Final Score: Novos 7 - 7