In lashing rain, after the usual deliberation over which Pitch the game should be played on the ladies took to the field. Fleetwood had a much bigger pack and in the initial exchanges used their forward power to good effect. Novos were under severe pressure but Fleetwood could find no way past the effective and powerful tackling of the Novos forwards, Fran Mockford and Kate Disley particularly. The worry for Novos was the penalty count, conceding ground due to too many unforced errors and silly technical offences eventually gave Fleetwood the opportunity to open the scores with a penalty.

Novos needed a quick response, and a Helen Kane penalty gave them that. Novos now began to play much more smart rugby and managed to win more ball for our talented back line. A sweeping move saw Novos move the ball from left to right and a superb offload by Skipper Janette Shaw to Shauna Vetch allowed the scrum half to beat two tacklers to score the games opening try, Helen Kane added the two points to give Novos a 7 point lead. More oppportunities followed but Novos failed to find the final pass to extend the scores further before half time.

The 2nd half was all Novos as they camped in Fleetwood's half but continued profligacy meant they had to wait until the 70th minute before a great move from the back of a scrum 10 metres out saw Number 8 Kate Disley draw the defender and pass to Ali Mcmullon who in turn found scrum half Shauna Vetch to score, Helen Kane added the extra 2 points. Novos continued to pressurise for the remainder of the game, Emily Yarrow, Rachel Cooper and Lucy Mclean all having chances to score but resolute defending from Fleetwood kept the score line to 17-3.

A good opening league victory for Novos, but plenty to work on, the scrummage went well, as did the line out (Shorn of both regular jumpers) and some of the back play was very strong. Novos will need to be better to go for promotion but for a first outing this was a very positive display.