Novos II 13-14 Percy Park Lions
The Lions travelled to Sutherland Park for a league / cup winner takes all . The squad assembled was a young and exciting one ; Gallon , Kidd , Ssssshnairn , Phillips , Barry , Smith , Young , Lake , Gilmore , Anderson , Sutherland Ky , Jobson , Reece , Wrightson , Sutherland Ki , subs , Stoddart , Reekie , Barclay , Jobson . Park were in determined mood , keen to progress in the cup and eager to avenge the defeat inflicted by their hosts at Preston Avenue in the season opener . Coach Jobson more than a little determined for victory after his wasted journey a few weeks ago to a frozen pitch ! Sorry Graham , need to get it off my chest!
Skipper Lake lost the toss and Park kicked off with the strong wing blowing from the Ministry on their backs . In the early exchanges , things were pretty even . Park took control of the scrum and their lineout functioned smoothly . Novos looked to attack through their No.8 and through their right wing . The only scores in the half came from the boot of Parks fly half Anderson , when Park decided to take the points on offer .
Novos were thwarted on a couple of occasions by great defence , once by Sutherland senior and the other by Wrightson (who impressed on his Lions debut ) . In fact , the defence was a constant weapon for Park . The youngsters revelling in the physicality , if one of the opposition did get through it wasn't for long , it seemed that someone would always get them . Park did have scoring opportunities , unfortunately a bit of overeagerness , poor execution and wrong decisions prevented the scoring showing more favourably in their favour . 0-6 HT .
Just as the Park players got to their huddle , their attention was taken by the Vo's skipper who decided to inform all and sundry that 'it was a 20 point wind' , perhaps it should've been , but it wasn't through lack of effort , Park were encouraged to play exactly as they had in the first half , to keep their discipline and press their D . Unfortunately , Novos got off to a flyer and within minutes had narrowed the the gap to 3 points . 3-6 .
The game would follow a similar pattern for a he next twenty minutes or so . Novos would keep Park back in their own half with some accurate kicking . Park would attack with strong running and good support play and worked their way into Novos territory , only to turn the ball over or give away penalties at the breakdown for hanging on . Novos would then attack , only for Park to force the opposition into errors through their aggressive defence .
Then came the crucial score . Sutherland senior evading a tackle and scampering to the line after Park had produced a patient attack , scoring after multiple faces and an input from most of the side . 3-11 .
As in the first half , Park could've scored a couple more times had they used their top two inches . Having won two consecutive penalties at the scrum in your opponents 22 , you'd expect the opportunity of a third ! Well you would , had your skipper not tapped and went 6 metres out . Then , a few minutes later , when it seemed that all Park had to do was get it wide through the hands to score , their execution forces a fumble that fell into the hands of Novos very own 'honey badger ' who raced the full length of the pitch . But did he ground the ball ? The decision was yes , but that was made a good 30 yards behind play and Park were adamant that after being initially held up on his back , the winger then knocked on as he attempted to ground the ball . 10-11 .
Park then went through a spell of giving away needless penalties . One of those was slotted over and Novos led 13-11 . Still time for one last effort .
It was nervous stuff , both sides throwing everything into it . Novos pressed a little to hard and were spotted offside . The penalty was on the 22 straight in front . Kick at the posts signalled , a nervous hush descended around the ground , the wind started gusting again , but Anderson slotted it straight through the middle . 13-14 to Park with only seconds remaining . Still time to give the coach a heart attack , as the restart was dropped and a scrum awarded instead of a penalty for killing the ball ! Phew ! At the scrum Park did what they did all day , pushed the opposition back . That meant the Novos 10 tried an optimistic drop goal from the 10m , which fortunately got nowhere near . Cue relieved and dispairing faces ! As for the 20 point wind , he wasn't far off as 21 points were scored in the second half.
This was a well contested game . Both sides played like they wanted it , and it was won by the narrowest of margins . Once again , Parks young guns were outstanding . The confidence they now play with when playing senior rugby is great to see . It would be wrong for me to signal out any individual , because it was a total team performance . But each player did something individually that stood out . Positive was the return of Tank Reekie who added some aggressive defence and trundling carries . Negative was losing Zak Barclay with an injured shoulder on his first game back , hopefully he will be back before the season is over .
Blaydon Development are next up at Preston Avenue .