On a chilly, misty March morning Casuals showed up from the first whistle with a clear determination to prove to Ilkeston that their previous win hadn’t been a fluke. Stan got the tries underway with a strong rip of the ball and run for the line. This was closely followed by tries for George, Felix, Rupert, Edwyn and Bradwell who ended the quarter with a fantastic diving showboat of a try. Ilkeston slipped a few pacey runs through to score a few, prompting reminders at the break that Casuals needed more communication in defence. Q1 score: Casuals 6 Ilkeston 3

Q2 score: Casuals 3 Ilkeston 4 (but we were still leading 9:7 overall)

Casuals defence was put to the test this quarter with Ilkeston’s super speedy try scorer slipping a few cheeky breakaways past Casuals. Three Casuals tries saw some moments of brilliance… notably Mikey’s driving breakthrough to support Owen’s try and a blistering try-saving tackle from Owen on Ilkeston’s nippiest runner. Tries from Edwyn, Liam and Owen came from some great work at quickly driving Ilkeston back from the opening kick.

Q3 score: Casuals 8 Ilkeston 2 (17:9 by my reckoning …)

Casuals were quick off the mark to put their team talk challenge into action – weaving dummy passes and sidesteps into their play wherever possible. The tries came thick and fast this quarter with George, Stan, Effie, Spencer and Owen adding to the scoresheet. But what really stood out (to a fairly untrained eye) was the great supporting play and offloads: Felix and Stan lined Effie up perfectly; Felix applied great pressure to support Spencer’s try; Owen’s touchdown enabled by a searing run from the kick off by Spencer and Oscar delivering a wonderfully timed offload for Owen. It really was great to see Casuals working so well as a team.

Q4: Casuals 6 Ilkeston 0 (23:9 final score)

A triumphant final quarter with driving runs from Mikey and Otto enabling scores from Nathan, Spencer, Liam, Felix, Edwyn and George … I think… there were a few scrambles over the line that saw Tom and Sam in the thick of the action so apologies if I’ve not got the details quite right (no video replay here). The point being that the generous support and timely offloads added up to a great team result.

Well done Casuals – you deserved this score line and should be proud of yourselves.

Final score 23 Casuals / Ilkeston 9