Nottingham Casuals 26 Dronfield 7

Midlands 2 East North
27th September 2014
Nottingham Casuals 26 Dronfield 7

Casuals continued their good start to the season with a 4 try bonus point win over old foe Dronfield.
Casuals have come up against Dronfield regularly throughout many seasons, and have always had hard fought encounters, and most of the game was keenly contested, before Casuals finally took advantage of their visitors’ failings.
With several changes from the previous week, Casuals took their time to settle, and the game fluctuated for the first 20 minutes.

Casuals had the opportunity to take an early lead when Steve Naylor picked up a loose ball, and he raced up the wing, only to be gradually caught by the back pedalling defenders. The attempted inside pass went astray, and Casuals lost the advantage. They then had to get back in defence when Dronfield were awarded a penalty, that pushed Casuals back into their half, and they were lucky to survive an attack, a last ditch tackle saving the day.
Both sides were guilty of misdirected passes, and when Dronfield went through from a lineout, Naylor was in place to intercept, but contrived to get penalised, and once again gave away possession, and then conceded a penalty which Dronfield tried to kick a long range penalty, but fortunately they failed.
Casuals were very lax in their defending, and Dronfield managed to get a drive on from a lineout to register a converted try on 20 minutes.

Casuals were put under further pressure, as their scrum was unable to withhold Dronfield’s superior power, and they conceded a scrum on their 5 metre. Once again Dronfield managed to drop the ball, and this time Naylor picked up, and ran from well inside Casuals 22 to get over for the try, which Mark Higgins converted, drawing level just in time for the ½ time break.
Casuals started the second half by exerting some pressure, allowing them to get within 5 metres of Dronfield’s try line, but they couldn’t make the pressure pay, conceding a penalty to give Dronfield some relief, but Gareth Davies-Jones put in a great touch kick to get Casuals back deep into Dronfield’s 22. From the ensuing attack, Ben Barkham cut through and Higgins eventually crossed
in the corner.
It was Casuals turn to be put under pressure, but a penalty to Casuals took them back downfield, and when Dronfield once again contrived to drop the ball, Chris Brelsford picked up, sending Naylor through, and he fed Steve Sarno supporting on his outside who crossed for Casuals 3rd try, Higgins converting to give them a reasonable cushion.

Dronfield once again came back strongly, but despite mounting some good attacks, Casuals giving them far too much room, they failed to get on the scoreboard again.
Casuals became over ambitious in their attempts to get attacks going, and their passing got a bit loose, but eventually their efforts were rewarded with the bonus point try, when the pressure on Dronfield told, and they once more dropped the ball. Roberts pounced on the loose ball to send Barkham away and he in turn released Davies-Jones to get through for the try, and Higgins converted.

It was just reward for their enthusiasm and efforts, but Casuals will need to tighten up to achieve consistency. If they can exert pressure on the opposition through their tackling and harassing, as they did in this game, and put together some consistent ball retention, they should give most sides more than a good contest.
Well done the forwards for battling through in the face of some pressure in the scrums. A few positional changes during the game in the front row eventually led to a bit of scrummaging stability. Again, greater consistency at the lineout, and securing possession regularly is the target.

Next week Casuals travel to Peterborough in the first round of the Midlands Division of the RFU cup.