Winlaton Vulcans RFC

Sat 26th January Novos 1st XV 20pts Winlaton 1st XV 13pts

Novos started brightly on a perfect afternoon for rugby with a firm pitch and a warm sunny spring day. The home side’s backs looked dangerous from the outset and had Winlaton on the back foot and only stout defence led by Tariq Albassam held them out. However on 8 mins after a chip ahead from Graeme Clarkson was followed up by a fly hack from Ian Fleming led to Novos conceding a penalty in front of their posts. Gary Allison converted the penalty. After this Novos backs broke through again only for Ian Fleming to put in a try saving tackle and Graeme Clarkson to clear. Winlaton then took control through their forwards with strong runs through the middle by Andy Robinson and Michael Bowles and some great rolling mauls. On 28 mins Tariq Albassam made a great break supported by the back row. Novos stopped the move by conceding a penalty. Unfortunately the kick was missed. Two minutes later the match turned on a decisive occurrence. Graeme Clarkson took a quick penalty, Novos did not retreat and from what instead, should have been a Winlaton penalty, Graeme Clarkson was sinbinned for stamping at the ensuing ruck. Two minutes later Andy Moore followed for tackling a jumper in the air. Down to 13 men Winlaton fought hard and a series of forward driving rucks and mauls took them to 10 meters off the home line. The ball was spilled and a speculative fly hack was not secured by Winlaton. Novos collected the ball slickly passed the ball out to their backs who ran the length of the field to score against 13 men and the run of the play. On 40 mins Ian Fleming had a chance to level when he hacked a loose ball over the try line but was just beaten to the touch down. From the 22 drop out Winlaton gathered the ball and drove over but the referee did not see the touch down just as he seemed to miss everything Novos did.
HT 10 – 3

The second half began with Winlaton securing the ball from the kick off and putting Novos under sustained pressure and within 3 mins Novos conceded a kickable penalty which unfortunately Gary Allison missed. This proved very costly. It was now all Winlaton, mainly through their forwards. On 55 mins from a scrum on the half way line, Grame Clarkson made a fantastic 30 m break but as usual there was little support. However from the resulting ruck Mark Bly drove for the line only to be stopped just short but he was just able to reach over to score. Unfortunately Gary Allison just failed with conversion. After this Novos, started to kick long and forced Winlaton to play from within their own 22. Winlaton conceded a silly penalty which Novos duly kicked. On 68 mins with the game still winnable the Novos backs ran the ball and despite a blatant forward pass to the winger the referee awarded the try. With nothing to lose Winlaton gave it their all in the last quarter. Novos conceded penalty after penalty but the “Northumberlad” referee never even hinted at producing a yellow card. The Winlaton pack took complete control with driving mauls and rucks and excellent lineout work from Robinson and Scullion. Andy Moore touched down following a great forward drive. Once again the conversion was missed. This was the pattern of play up to the final whistle but Winlaton failed to add a score and snatch a result which their efforts deserved.
FT 20 – 13 MoM Tariq Albassam