Casuals 25 Southwell 10

Saturday 20th February 2010

Midlands 3 East (North)

Nottingham Casuals 25 Southwell 10
Casuals completed the league double over Southwell, but somewhat less emphatically than expected. The match was spoilt by an over proliferation of ineffective kicking, which regularly turned attack into defence for Casuals, and the backs had to endure long periods without the ball, despite the forwards best efforts.The forwards regularly had to win ball back, that they had only just secured. Southwell must have wondered how they managed to enjoy so much possession, and their backs certainly tried their utmost to use the manna from the heavens.
Despite scoring 4 tries, Casuals never realised their full potential, even with the forwards ensuring plenty of possession, and it was only when the backs were given ball to run with, did they show how good they can be. Casuals were unable to gain significant territorial advantage, in order to set up decent attacks.

Mark Higgins replied to an early Southwell penalty, but it took Joe Barton's break on the half hour from inside Casuals half to get the score board rolling. He picked up a loose ball,swatted aside a couple of tacklers, and then ran the rest of the pitch with defenders in his wake to get a try on the board, his touchdown giving Higgins an easy pot at goal.
The next try came after the forwards set up a maul and a simple pass from Dave Mellor put Josh Tilford in at the corner.

Eventually a decent backs move saw Ben Wilkinson gain huge yardage up the touchline,to take him up to Southwell's try line, and his hard work gave Higgins the try on a plate.

Southwell came back with a converted try, to pull back to 20 -10, but the forwards determination saw a penalty given away by Southwell, and the maul ball went out to Andy Milne who linked with Ben Hallam, and it was Hallam who wriggled his way through the tackles to seal the win with the final try.