The men got our 125th Anniversary off to a flying start on Saturday running out 52-23 victors against a strong looking Acklam side who were unfortunate to not grab a bonus point on the day, despite a spirited performance in front of an impressive Novocastrians home crowd.

Acklam were the stronger of the two sides in the first half despite an early opportunistic try from captain George Bambrick to kick off proceedings. A brilliant kick to touch by fly half Josh Farley from an early penalty put us 5 metres out from the line. After Acklam sat off our attempt to maul, Bambrick noticed a chance to barrel through the lineout and touch down to get a high scoring game underway.

From that point on however for the remainder of the half, things seemed to sway more towards the away side. After absorbing a fair bit of pressure, our defence held firm forcing errors, but we also couldn't seem to string together phases of our own upon turning the ball over. Eventually Acklam forced their way over the line from a scrum and after converting the visitors led 7-5.

We knew just how to respond however, spotting space on the blindside Rob Baldwin and Rhys Merlane combined to pin the fullback with a great kick. We turned the ball over and a simple miss pass from Farley put Olliver Harris over the line for a try on debut.

Acklam finished the half by slotting two penalties awarded in front of the posts to put us 13-10 down at the break and needing a big second half to turn things around. And a big second half we had, scoring a whopping 42 points within 40 minutes to end up winning the game comfortably.

Johnny Allton grabbed the first points of the half after we strung together our best bit of phase-play in the game so far, crashing over from close range through a few tacklers to touchdown over the line. From the bench Darren Kelly would copy him, after a great scrum gave us a platform to play, Kelly held the inside line off Farley to stretch out and score. A great way to mark his first few minutes back with the squad after some time away.

It was looking like everything Kelly touched turned into tries so far and he proved it by stealing another 5 pointer less than 5 minutes later. Outstanding work rate by Lewis Chater from the kick off resulted in a charge down of the attempted clearance kick by Acklam and Kelly was there to follow up the effort and dive on the ball to make the lead more comfortable.

Chater would be eventually awarded for his efforts just 10 minutes earlier and pounced on an overthrown lineout to dive into the corner after beating a stranded Acklam defender, and then not too much later Johnny Allton would score his second of the day after some hot-stepping metres out from the line allowed him to dot the ball down under the sticks.

Acklam would score a couple very well worked tries too, some sloppy organisation from us after kick off was pounced on by the away sides back line and they punished us dearly for our mistakes after some good handling put them in the corner on two occasions in the second half.

However, whilst in search of their bonus point score, youngster Oliver Harris would pluck a loose ball out of the air reading the pass attempt well, he turned on the gas, getting his second score of the day and sealing the win for the home side to the elation of the supporters.

Final Score - Novos 52-23 Acklam

We go again next week away to Bishop Auckland, with training resuming this Tuesday and Thursday. Up The Vos!