Novos 35, Ponteland 15 - Rugby the Winner

Novocastrians went on a ruthless rout on Saturday against Ponteland as they scored multiple length of the field tries against a very physical Ponteland side.

After keeping the ‘mighty maroons’ to a score of 35-0 after an hour played on the pitch, the away side mustered up a late flurry of scores through their pack in the final 20 minutes to bring the final score to 35-15, all a little too late however as Novocastrians swept up a 5-point victory in comfortable fashion.

Novos were the dominant team for most of the first half and made Ponteland pay for their lack of discipline. After keeping them pinned down for 5 minutes Lewis Chater played with the free play advantage with a hopeful kick cross-field across to Brandon Gilbert, the ball just bouncing a metre too far for the chasing winger. After tinkering with the Ponteland defense for a while longer Novos won a penalty and went to the corner where a slightly confused Tom Taylor eventually put the ball down over the line for the first 5 points of the day. Michael Searle slotted the extras from out wide against his former club. 10 minutes in, 7-0 Novocastrians.

The next 20 minutes or so were dictated by Ponteland and the weight packed into their much larger front row, much to the dissatisfaction of the Sutherland Park crowd. After eventually securing the ball in the home side's half, Ponteland opted to scrummage relentlessly taking advantage of a boggy pitch and a smaller Novocastrians pack clearly looking to draw a card from the referee. The well drilled side worked to break down the home side but to no avail and eventually the experienced Tom Dias was brought on from the bench temporarily to combat Ponteland's only weapon in their arsenal. The mess was instantly cleaned up and after being forced to play the ball Ponteland's only real attack of the first 60 minutes was thwarted by none other than Michael Searle winning a huge turnover.

It only took the dominant side 2 minutes after that to score the second of the day, A great quick tap from Rhys Merlane unlocked the Ponteland defense and a slick offload released Lewis Chater who practically jogged past the final defender diving under the sticks to make it 12-0. From this point onwards the game turned into an ugly affair, a needless cheap shot to Chater’s head after scoring the try resulted in a yellow card for Ponteland's 12 as well a short scrap and an even longer telling off for both teams from the referee. Searle once again added the extras to make it 14-0, 5 minutes till the half time whistle.

The situation looked oddly similar to 2 weeks earlier as Novo’s led by a 14-point margin away to Hartlepool Rovers and the way they entered the second half showed the squad was determined not to let it happen again. It took about 90 seconds for Merlane who assisted the try earlier, to pick around the edge of the ruck after linking up nicely with Dylan Gittins down the blindside. From the resulting ruck Merlane dove over for the try. Then, against the heckling of the away team’s replacements, Michael Searle slotted the touchline conversion against some strong winds to bring the distance between the two teams to 21 points.

Straight from the receiving kickoff, Louis Matthews made one of his trademark breaks shrugging off 3 tacklers before releasing Sam Busby taking the ball up to the 22. After recycling the ball, Merlane played it quickly from the floor to Searle who tempted 3 of the Ponteland backline, after taking the rather obvious bait from Searle in an attempt to hit him hard in the contact, he lifted the ball into the gaping space for Ben Jubb to run onto and dive beneath the posts for the bonus point score. Conversion added again by Searle for a 28-0 lead.

The next try would follow some 15 minutes later and would prove to be the try of the afternoon, and maybe a contender for try of the season. A quick tap from Dylan Gittins about 10 meters out from Novo’s tryline eventually found the ball in the hands of Harry Tankard who put his head down and beat about 4 defenders for pace before offloading nicely to Sam Busby. The man of the match used his lightning-fast feet to step 2 of the last 3 defenders before drawing the final man to release Ben Jubb, the beneficiary of the wingers work he then flopped over the line for his second try of the day.

On the hour mark, and with the win confirmed Novo’s evidently began thinking about the bigger picture, Lewis Chater was removed from the field of play after being subject some rough treatment throughout the duration of the game. Ponteland then scored 3 tries on the bounce and brought the final score to a more respectable 35-15 not necessarily reflecting the nature of the game.

Thank you to Paul Minto for a fine display of reffing although Ponteland's could count themselves lucky to only receive one yellow card.

The 1st XV travel to Acklam this week who currently sit 1 place above Ponteland in the league standings.

Up The Vos!