Novos 64, Hartlepool 24 - Cooking on Gas

The rugby gods had blessed us on Saturday as we saw sunrays kiss Sutherland Park grass for the first time in a long time. With not a single drop of rain in sight Novocastrians were smelling blood from the first whistle. After a short kickoff from the away side, Novos were awarded a scrum on the halfway allowing Sam Busby to work his magic down the left touchline before releasing Max Cook for his first try of many on the day. Barney Youlden slotted the conversion from the touchline and Novos led 7-0 after less than 2 minutes on the clock.

The second would come after Ben Jubb made a break from inside the 22. After some messy Hartlepool defense, the opportunity was squandered with Brandon Gilbert haring down on his left for an overlap but after some quick play, the ball was well worked to Jeremy Hunt who crashed over for his first try in a Novos shirt. A well-deserved moment for the second rower who has been class for us all season.

It was centre and winger linking up once again to get Max Cook’s second, a perfectly timed and weighted grubber from Busby sat up for Cook who outpaced his opposite man to score in what is quickly becoming his favourite corner of the pitch. A great call from captain George Bambrick to choose the scrum, it being one of our best weapons on the day.

10 minutes later, perhaps some complacency from the home side allowed for multiple penalties to accumulate and gift Hartlepool easy territory which, despite some dogged defense to contend with they eventually found the try line. 17-7 and the challengers clearly weren't going down without a fight.

Dylan Gittins secured us the bonus point before the end of the half, after Hartlepool opted to double up on Sam Busby, from another scrum, Dylan Gittins spotted the space openside and picked from the base to slide over with little difficulty. Youlden converted and we were a bit more secure at 24-7.

We would bag one more before the half time oranges though, a move from the backs was momentarily halted but after the ball was recycled back to fly-half Youlden, he would take the space that opened up in front of him for Novos to have the last say of the half. 31-7.

The second half started on a somewhat sour note that nobody would have wanted to see. Hartlepool’s number 5 was yellow carded after an attempted headlock on Johnny McSorley was less than successful, the foul play was spotted, and the away team were reduced to 14. Time for Novos now to really step on the gas.

60 seconds went by and Louis Matthews who had a stellar game as always, put Ben Jubb through a hole left by the now absent second rower before he in turn put in Dylan Gittins running a great support line on his inside to dot down under the sticks for his second of the day, 38-7 and the game was put to bed.

It didn’t mean we were finished with the scoresheet either however as we scored yet another almost length of the field score. Some nice handling from the back three released Brandon Gilbert to beat his man before putting an outside of the boot kick back in field. The ball was re-gathered and the shipped back to Gilbert who beat two defenders for power and bundled his way into the far corner.

Eventually with some 20 minutes to go, the game turned into a loose affair, Hartlepool managed against the run of play to snatch a try bonus point from the Novocastrians defense in the dying minutes of the match, much to the elation of the players and away supporters. But it wasn’t before Sam Busby and Ben Jubb racked up two more tries for the scoresheet and Max Cook scored his fourth in 2 games for the 1st XV having only made his debut last week, to secure his hat-trick on the day.

The final score ended 64-24 although the home side will be disappointed to have conceded as many points as they did on the day. We move onto Ryton away from home this week in a fixture that we can't afford to take lightly, against what we expect will be strong opposition especially on their home soil.

Good luck to Hartlepool in their final two games. We were a tad annoyed on the 2-3 occasions that you refused to go under the posts after we scored. However, your three tries in the final ten mins showed us what a great rugby team you can be when you gained some momentum.

Thanks to Graham Crozier for a fine display of reffing - always great to welcome and experienced ref to Sutherland Park.

Up The Vos!