Novos II 28-20 Sunderland II

Captain and team organiser for the day Clive Fish gave a Julius–Caesar–esque team talk to rouse the seconds before the game and they went onto the pitch with fire in their bellies.

Because of this Sunderland started the game very well, and applied pressure from the off in the forwards. Dominating in the scrum and making the effort to get to the rucks resulted in the game being played mostly in the novos 22. Good dictation of play by Terry Haley nearly created tries for both Sam Jermy from the base of a ruck three metres out who eventually conceded a penalty and Andy Mackie tried to power over, only to be held up over the line. The Sunderland pack completely bossed the scrum all day and were unlucky to not score a walkover try after walking the scrum nearly over the line. Paul Hands had a chance with an interception but was caught by his opposing winger and the two centres Craig O’Dononan and Duncan Bain showed their value by breaking the line many times.

The first points of the day were for novos against the run of play however, slick handling in their backs resulted in an overlap that could be used, and the conversion was added. However it wasn’t long before Haley made honours even again by dummying from a ruck and dodging through a gap to score. At half time the score was 7-7.

In the second half the lack of fitness from the Christmas break began to take its toll and the Novos side started to apply more pressure. Despite O’Dononan making some good breaks the game was played mostly in Sunderland’s half. However the first points came to Sunderland when Michael Heffernan scored a penalty. Mackie nearly added a second after some good interplay with Hands down the right wing but was tackled just short of the line, with Novos conceding a penalty from the scrambled defence. Captain Fish elected for the corner and the resulting drive from the lineout was put down by Mackie for a well-deserved try. The conversion was missed to bring the score to 15-7.

From here however Novos showed why they were league leaders going into the game. Continuous pressure and phases resulted in overlaps caused and a couple of missed tackles resulted in two quickly conceded penalties by Sunderland, making the score 21-15.

The game then descended into anarchy, with nobody getting a grip on the game. During this a Novos player intercepted a pass and had the pitch been five metres longer Bain would have caught him,. Unfortunately it wasn’t, so Novos took a two score lead.

In the dying minutes Sunderland threw everything they could at Novos, with a couple of Colts getting their first experience of the senior game. Haley had the last say with the last action by scoring a try in brilliant fashion, dummying a pass and dodging through a hole to score. The conversion was missed, meaning Sunderland missed out on a losing bonus point with the final score 28-20.