Newark struggled to cope

REPORT WRITTEN BY BOB WALKER

Nottingham Casuals 1st XV 61 Newark 2nd XV 19

Having spent five weeks travelling around France and watching England , it was a relief to watch some running rugby for a change.

Unfortunately, most of it - in the first half at least - came from Casuals.

There were always going to be tough games in this league. "Cas" narrowly missed out on promotion last season and are hopeful of challenging again this year. This impressive win took them up to third place.

Newark struggled to cope with some of their bigger ball carriers and were often turned over at the breakdown. The possession that we did gain was often lost through annoying errors which can sometimes be a feature of our games.

The home side were seven points up within three minutes, Newark having failed to hold on to the ball after receiving the kick off.
However, a quick tapped penalty enabled Josh Codd to run deep into Cas' half before a scrum against the head and a long pass from fly half Rhys Overland sent centre Ollie Case over near the corner. An Overland conversion tied the scores.

But Newark almost inevitably coughed up possession from the re-start and a combination of missed tackles and impressive handling from Casuals led to a succession of tries. It was a tough day at the office for our boys with the home side's number eight Matt O'Hare creating chaos with his power and pace - the former Nottingham Medics player ending up with a hat trick.

We did have our moments. Robbie Hunter-Shaw calmly took a steepling high ball before breaking a number of tackles and running back deep into Casuals' half and left winger Tom Taylor went over in the corner after scrum half Scott Edmed broke down the blindside. Overland nailed a difficult conversion to make the half time score a painful 40-14.

There were improvements from Newark in the second half. Edmed made a long break which could have ended in a try but the ball went forward. Flanker Matt Christian and skipper Ben Wells carried hard on a number of occasions and Casuals began to concede penalties. Their cause wasn't helped by two yellow cards.

Edmed then broke down the blindside and his pace and balance took him past three defenders to cross for Newark's third try.

Two of Casuals' second half tries came from breakouts after sustained Newark pressure. There were chances to secure a try bonus point but either the wrong option was taken or possession was lost at crucial moments.

It was an impressive performance by Casuals' 1st XV who took their chances. They also had a very low error count and defended tenaciously with 13 men at one point.

But while it may seem strange to talk about positives for us after such a big defeat, there were some. Casuals' president acknowledged that we never gave up - and in the second half there was marked improvement. And we should really have ended up with that try bonus point.

We just need to cut out those silly errors and tighten up our defence when we meet second-placed Ashbourne on Saturday.

Tries: Ollie Case, Tom Taylor, Scott Edmed.
Conversions: Rhys Overland (2)