Novos 15, Rockcliff 32 - All Us

The boys went down the Coast Rd hopefully of a better performance than last time out vs Medicals. The warm up went well and we kicked off into the wind. Tom Grieves struck an early penalty to put us ahead 3-0 but we conceded a few kickable penalties in the first half allowing Rockcliff to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

Before the end of the half we scored a fine try with Ben Kelly scorching down the wing on the far side. Conversion added by Tom Grieves to make the half time score 15-10 to Rockcliff.

We played some decent rugby at times moving the ball to the middle of the park as we'd hoped. However, we missed opportunities to score through lack of cohesion at times. However, given that we had been into a strong breeze the game had been set up as we'd hoped - 5 points down and the wind at our backs.

The game had threatened to spill over a couple of times with gesturing, grabbing and did so again on 46 mins when Liam Owens cleaned out a player who was on top of Matty Marshall with his forearm in his throat. I thought it was the right thing to do - defend a player in a prone position. Both players were rightly yellow carded.

With the game on the line there were two huge moments that changed the outcome. First of all we blew a 2 on 1 down the blindside after some great play by Matty Marshall. I think if we had of put that away we would've gone on to win. However, from the resulting scrum Rockclff broke out and eventually scored to go to 22-10 up instead of it being 17-15 to Novos.

We scored a fine try to Harry Armstrong after a beautifully sliced cross kick by Mark Stewart fell into Harry's arms to bring the game back into contention at 22-15. However, the final blow was then dealt as Darren Kelly made a bust down the sideline. He fed Armstrong but just as he was going in he was felled in a great try saving tackle. We lost the breakdown and Rockliff went 90 metres to get the score that emptied us.

Rockcliff scored twice in the last three mins to make the result look comfortable at 32-15 but it was anything but. At 15-10 at half time we should've gone on to win this game. We kicked poorly with the wind - by gut feeling rather than part of a structured process denying us of a kick chase at times. Then in attack we lacked cohesion to finish attacks or stay calm in possession and build pressure. All probably expected from a side who haven't played much together.

Jonty Collins on debut was excellent at the breakdown and looks like we have another great young talent on our hands. Darren Kelly was back to his best and Liam Owens is growing every week. I thought Mark Stewart and Brandon Gilbert were excellent in the middle and looked after the ball well. Our best player on the day in my opinion was Ben Kelly.

Thank you to Paul Minto - thought you had a great day with the whistle.

Well done to the Rockcliff lads - passionate display and you deserved your win.

Next week we have Acklam at home - please get down to support the boys as we need you to cheer us on.