Novocastrians made the long journey to Stockton last Saturday, coming up short in the end after battling both wind and rain in the first half, taking too long into the game to adapt to either.

Stockton took an early lead in the form of 5 points after an initial spell of pressure from Novos was met with some energized Stockton defense. After hammering away at the line, we were eventually held up under the sticks and our first attack of the game came to nothing as the resulting drop out was thumped long by Stocktons fly-half. We put our own kick back and it was met by a massive 50-22 from the home side, and whilst the wind gave it an extra shove, we had only ourselves to blame as we found ourselves stuck inside our own 22 after working so hard. Stockton eventually converted their chance after a series of pick and goes, and it was 5-0.

Once again, our opponents were better adapted to the conditions and played the territory game well, and again it was avoidable mistakes that accounted for us defending a lineout 5 meters out. We did well to sack the initial maul but once again Stockton remained calm to push us over the line in similar fashion to their first and the scoreboard read 12-0.

We would go on to change the momentum of the game, however, after a series of line breaks from the likes of Cam Harvey and Harry Tankard as we looked to get our speedsters more involved. An excellent kick from Alex Donaghy looked to have put Sam Busby in but the full back was judged to have knocked it on and resulted in a scrum. The front row in Tom Taylor, Fin Ruddock and Morgan Scrace sensed an opportunity to strike and after a dominant push, Rob Baldwin was able to crash over for yet another try this season.

From the resulting kick-off however, we were judged to have knocked the ball on deep inside our own half and like the flip of a switch the momentum was back with our opponents as they scored a hat-trick of pick and goes which we just hadn’t seemed to be able to deal with in the first 40.

With not long left to go in a poor first half we eventually scored in the final play to grab a glimpse of a typical Novos comeback. Some great work upfront resulted in a couple of penalties to allow us to work at the Stockton line. The defense initially held firm but after a change of direction Alex Donaghy was able to dot the ball down past the line and convert his own score to make the game a 5-point affair as the weather started to clear up.

Ironically, as the wind settled down and the rain began to stop, the second half wouldn’t see a single try, instead two penalties from each team to keep the final score 5 points the difference. Josh Farley entered the game at fly-half after eventually warming himself up, and immediately took a high shot and one off the ball, one of which resulted in a yellow card for the home teams inside center. We sensed a chance to jump on the opportunity and after dusting himself off, Farley took 2 difficult back-to-back kicks to give us the lead for the first time in the game. 17-18.

It wasn’t to be however, from the resulting kick off we conceded a penalty for an offside call and Stockton converted the 3 points to take back the lead. Then again, we were hit with another call for offside and a further 3 points were added.

We threw the kitchen sink at the home side for the final remaining 2 minutes but to no avail as the ball was eventually sent out of play to mark a loss that will sting for quite some time for the players and coaches involved, as now we know we can’t make any more mistakes if we want to really compete this season.

Final Score - Novos 18:23 Stockton

Training will resume this week both Tuesday and Thursday at 18:45 for a 19:00 start, as always everyone is welcome to come along and join!

Up The Vos!