Nottingham 48 Jersey
16
Report by William
Church
Another tough day at the office culminated in Jersey's 6th
successive loss in the Championship to a strong Nottingham side who
are in a rich run of form.
Following an early exchange of penalties, Nottingham ran in two
converted tries within the first 10 minutes. The first came as a
result of a vicious bounce from a kick over that took the ball away
from Le Bourgeois who had got back to cover, and sat up kindly for
Savage to collect and score under the posts; Arlidge converted. The
second came soon after as Davies slipped in defence which created a
gap and Shaw finished off, again Arlidge converted.
Arlidge kicked another penalty before Jersey then started to
find their feet and Le Bourgeois broke through to score under the
posts, which he then converted to reduce the deficit to 20-10.
Jersey were increasingly taking the initiative, but just couldn't
make the decisive final break-through a stubborn Nottingham defense
and with another exchange of penalties the sides turned round at
half time with Nottingham leading 23-13.
As the teams took to the field for the second half, Jersey were
still full of hope and anticipation, especially considering the
patterns of play of the previous two weeks, however another second
half domination was not to be.
Arlidge, who was having an all round very good kicking game
added two penalties to one reply by Le Bourgeios before a lapse in
the Jersey defence and a strong run by Duffey let Shaw in for his
second try and Nottingham's third.
From then on, Nottingham started to take control and when Evans
was yellow-carded for repeated infringement in the scrum things
went from bad to worse. Gethings came on as front row replacement,
but again Jersey were on the back foot and when the scrum went down
for the third time deep in the Jersey 22, the referee had no
hesitation in awarding a penalty try.
Harvey rang some changes, and both Thompson and Le Bourgeois
left the field injured before Nottingham scored their 5th and final
try through Rhys Crane.
The final score was 48-16 to the home side who literally were
'pretty in pink', wearing a one-off strip in aid of a charity,
cancer awareness fund-raising initiative on 'Ladies day' at
Nottingham.
There is now a two week break from Championship action as Jersey
first entertain Pontypridd at St Peters, before travelling to
Yorkshire to face Leeds in the B&I cup.
The next Championship fixture is at home on Saturday 27th
October against London Scottish.
Referee:
M Curley
Attendance: 1,483
Half
time: 23-13
Full
time: 48-16
Man of the
match: Arlidge (Nottingham)
Scorers
Nottingham
Tries: Savage,
Shaw (2), Crane, Penalty Try
Conversions:
Arlidge (4)
Penalties:
Arlidge (5)
Jersey
Try: Le
Bourgeios
Conversion: Le
Bourgeios
Penalties: Le
Bourgeios (3)
