Midlands Division Cup Round 2

17th October 2016

Midlands Division Cup Round 2

Nottingham Casuals 24 Stamford 31

Casuals somewhat disappointingly lost this game in the 2nd half as Stamford came back strongly late in the game.
Casuals had held the lead for much of the game, but were guilty of losing their focus, as their defence failed to cope with Stamfords forwards surges.
Casuals took the lead in the 8th minute when outside half Gareth Davies-Jones broke through, after Casuals had won a scrum deep in their own half. He fed Brody Howatson and he in turn passed onto Dan O’Connor who used his speed to cut through the Stamford defence. Davies-Jones added the straightforward conversion from in front of the posts.
Casuals had to endure long periods of pressure, defending deep in their own 1/2 , but eventually broke out through Josh Newton, who made it through to Stamford’s 10 metre line. Unfortunately Casuals did not take advantage of the ground gained, as the ball was aimlessly kicked away, Stamford marked the catch, and immediately ran play back through a sluggish defence to score a converted try.
Casuals took a quick restart but were penalised in the ensuing play, and again Stamford moved the resultant kick quickly, and again they were given too much space enabling them to run in for their 2nd try.
It was then Casuals’ turn to dominate play, but they were guilty of being too relaxed at times.
In the 26th minute Casuals again did not take advantage of another Newton break, and they kicked the ball away with a 3 man overlap, the line at their mercy.
Thankfully Casuals turned the pressure into points when the forwards kept it reasonably tight. Antonios Alexiou latched onto the ball from a Stamford throw at the lineout and he took up to Stamfords 5 metre from where Liam Annable drove over from the resultant ruck.
G D-J added the conversion to give Casuals a deserved lead.
Casuals were put back under pressure as they were penalised somewhat strangely as Stamford very obviously collapsed the scrum.
Play was taken up into Casuals’ 22 from the kick, and then Joe Barton was bizarrely yellow carded as the ball came off his hand as he was tackling a Stamford attacker. (Seen a lot worse without any sanction; weird)
Casuals then had to endure a 16 minute period without him as the ref somehow miscalculated the sin bin period.
It seemed to turn into a very, very long first half.

However Casuals were undaunted and in the 2nd half when Stamford pulled a Casuals’ man down in the lineout, Davies-Jones walloped a penalty from 45 metres to extend the lead.
The lead further increased when Casuals’ forwards put in a huge shove in the scrum on ½ way and rumbled Stamford back, gaining a penalty. That was moved on by the referee for dissent from Stamford (now that was a surprise) Casuals opted or the scrum and again they shoved Stamford back, Annable going over for the try, and a score of 24 -12

Unfortunately a couple of injuries to crucial players seemed to knock Casuals out of their stride.
One of these brought lock Oli Mann into the fray, returning after many year’s absence from the game after serious injury.
Casuals kept up their advantage up front for a period in the middle of the second half, but then the game ws turned on it’s head, as Stamford’s forwards began to dominate much against the run of play, and they managed to run in 3 tries, 2 converted to claim the tie much to the disappointment of Casuals’ players and supporters, but gave the breying Stamford contingent great cause to jump about in huge elation and mirth.

The referee had to deal with some silly outbursts and dissent during the game, greatly disappointing, but he did what was needed to be done. Fortunately Casuals kept the discipline throughout, which had to be commended.

The RJH conversion specialists man of the match in this Rothera Sharp solicitors sponsored game was scrum half Josh Newton.

Next week Newark visit Canalside for a league game, having lost to Stamford in the previous round of the cup. So there could be some hope for Casuals to kick start their league campaign