The newly crowned Rugby World team of the month (By virtue of their 100% win rate this season) Novos Panthers hadnt played for over 2 months. A strong squad was named for the visit of Isle Of Man Vagabonds and though they are occupying a lowly position in the league, no one at Novos was taking that for granted.

Indeed the Vagabonds started very impressively - a strong defencive unit they were aggressive in pressing Novos and forced errors. The IOM number 9 looked a very good player and was distributing the ball well causing Novos problems. Novos defence is not too bad either and there was no way through for Vagabonds.

Eventually a well worked break from Janette Shaw created space for Helen Kane who powered forward missing the opportunity to score out wide with Clare Gent in space - Novos recycled well and Rachel Cooper forced her way over to give Novos the lead with Helen Kane adding the conversion.

Again Vagabonds attacked Novos and again they were forced back and great reactions from a turnover ball saw Novos forwards suck in the IOM fringe defence allowing Rachel Cooper to switch play and find space wide
with Kerry Short showing good pace to finish from 40 yards for the first of her three tries.

Novos began to find their stride and scored again just before half time through Rachel Cooper to lead 17 - 0.

After the break Novos went on the rampage and clicked into the form that has saw them storm to the summit of the league, Kerry Short scoring twice to complete her hat trick and further scores from Skipper Janette Shaw, Christine Miller, Helen Kane and Emily Yarrow.

At 44 - 0 Novos were cruising with 10 minutes to go, suddenly the game changed and Novos gave away what can only be described as an unusually high number of penalties - Novos couldnt seem to make a tackle without being penalised and it led to a frustrating end to what had been a great game - eventually Vagabonds became the first team to register a try against Novos this season, despite the 'scorer' landing on her back in the tackle and then dropping the ball over the line.

League rugby can be unforgiving and is no place for soft scores to be awarded - It does neither team any good.

It is however a testament to this Novos team that despite a thumping win there was genuine frustration and anger at the try at the end and a feeling that we could have done better, this all came from the players, fantastic competitiveness. This bodes well for the remaining 4 games with Novos looking to go for a perfect season.

Next week bottom side Team Northumbria are the visitors with Novos looking for another strong performance in the push for promotion