Loughborough 32 Nottingham Casuals 5

11th Oct 2014

Midlands 2 East

Loughborough 32 Nottingham Casuals 5

Casuals were hoping to banish the previous week’s cup defeat against
Peterborough from their minds, but unfortunately it turned into a worse
scenario, against a lowly Loughborough side.

With 9 changes from the previous week, mostly forced by social
activities, Casuals were going have to gel very quickly, and for the
first 15 minutes they were the dominant side, with some good
possession, keeping the hosts pinned back in their ½.

But recurring mishandling, and seeming nervousness, halted most of the
moves, and Lougborough withstood the initial attacks.

Casuals lost a lineout in a good attacking position, and Loughborough
put together a movement to go over in the corner.
Casuals then came back on the attack, and a score seemed in the offing,
but once again, they lost the ball and Lougborough took possession, and
another simple move took them under Casuals’ posts for a converted try.

When Casuals lost a man to a yellow card, and they gave away ground
through some in-disciplined play, Loughborough added another converted
try to their tally just before half time.

The second half started with Casuals under severe pressure on their own
line, and conceded yet another try.

To their credit, they came back into the game and took play into the
opposition half, and James Constable just managed to squeeze in at the
corner for a deserved try.

Casuals then managed to lose another man for 10 minutes, and this put
Casuals under the cosh again.
Recurring infringements and back chat had taken its toll, and Casuals
were unlikely to get any sympathy from the referee.
However, the next score was grossly unjust, as the ball went forward
along the ground by yards, but the referee just did not spot the
offence and Loughborough gleefully crossed the try line.
They then added another score to run out easy winners, to lift
themselves up from the base of the table.

Casuals had to be glad that Loughborough did not possess a goal-kicker,
as the score would have been distinctly worse.

The Loughborough president thanked the Casuals' absentees, and wished the same again for the return fixture.