Nottingham Casuals  40  Ashfield 7

Nottinghamshire Intermediate Cup
Semi final
23rd April 2016

Nottingham Casuals  40  Ashfield 7

Casuals last home game of the season brought victory over Ashfield, booking their place in the final on Sunday 1st May at Southwell.

The opening 1/4 of an hour saw Casuals struggling to gain any dominance. Casuals enforced changes meant it took a while for the players to gell.
Nick Urqhart made his debut on the right wing as one of the players brought in.
Even though they started on the attack, Ashfield easily held their own, and even made Casuals defend grimly, as poor tackling allowed the visitors to dominate territory, and they made Casuals look very average.

All that changed when Casuals opened the scoring in the 16th minute. Casuals won a lineout ball in Ashfield’s 22 , and Mark Higgins neatly timed pass found full back Ben Hallam, living up to his nickname “Bullet” to streak through in the centre, to touch down.
His third try in 3 weeks, all off the same set piece move. Higgins had the simple task of converting.

Hallam was instrumental in the next try when he ran the ball at the Ashfield defence, linking up with Steve Naylor, who came off his wing to didge his way through the central defenders, and he found Brodie Howatson in support, sending him away for the try. Higgins was again successful with the kick.

Ashfield briefly came back into the game, when they ran in a converted try late in the half, pulling the score back to 14 points to 7, but that was to be their only score, and they never looked like scoring again.

Casuals went up a gear after that, as their confidence started to grow. A couple of substitutions gave new impetus to their game, and it was Graeme Roberts, introduced off the bench who set the attack rolling for the next try. He took a high ball, and his run allowed to link with the support, Liaam Annable was on hand, dextrously scooping up a descending pass, and he fed Higgins whose pace took him through for the try, which he converted.

Casuals went down to 14 men with a sin binning, but it made no difference their dominance, and they nearly scored within moments, but unfortunately centre James Wood managed to spill the ball in the process of diving over.

Undeterred, Casuals continued to keep Ashfield pinned back . Playing with increased confidence, they kept the ball alive, as they repeatedly set up numerous moves.
Casuals started an attack from a lineout, and Steve Naylor, again coming off his wing, ran onto a reverse pass from Higgins, and he burst through several tackles in his charge for the line for yet another try.

Another line out, deep in Ashfield’s half, set Casuals off for the next score.
A superb take from the throw in was quickly transferred to the backs, and Hallam, again running at speed from deep, took the pass from Higgins, and he went clean through the flagging defence, running round to ensure an easy conversion kick for Higgins.

Casuals rounded off the scoring, after some more interplay. This time it was flanker Henry Franklin, emerging from a ruck of players, who dived over, and Higgins completed the rout with his 5th conversion kick, to see Casuals through to the finals next week.
Hopefully they can reproduce their second half form, as it certainly was a blistering display, which deserved a much higher score.

Moderns came through the other semi, seeing off Mansfield, and they meet at Southwell Rugby Club, on Sunday the 1st May, with kick off at 3.30.

The Saturday after, the 7th, Casuals are back at Southwell to play Glossop in the NLD (Notts, Lincs and Derbyshire) finals