Cambridge came away from the Bay with a losing bonus point – scant reward for a full-on, bruising encounter on a porridge of a pitch where Nottingham were made to work hard for their win.
Head Coach Craig Newby was frustrated and disappointed after, saying “Yeah, heartbroken again. We were the better team today. There were a couple of areas where we weren’t quite as good as Nottingham -probably the maul, I suppose, where they got a bit more but we were the better team today. We technically were excellent most of the game. We kicked pretty well, we chased our kicks, we won some really big moments.
“We showed some maturity so we’re learning. We’ve got some young guys that are doing some awesome stuff. We didn’t look like the bottom of the table table team so it’s heartbreaking. Some of the guys will learn for the rest of their career, when the games on the line what they need to do to execute and lock in because we blew an opportunity there to go and win that game at the end. That’s what this team is now – it has been about about learning and drawing and moving forward. So we’ll go again for Richmond”.
Newby’s side opened the scoring after 14 minutes, with Dan Eckersley burrowing over for the first try of the evening. Otu Mausia’s conversion went wide.
Nottingham lock Jay Ecclesfield repeated the feat close-in following sustained Archers’ pressure – and fly half Gwynn Parks made no mistake with the extras.
Cambridge rallied, and a sublime nudge through from Ruaridh Dawson was gathered in the far corner by Joe Green, who made light of the conditions to dive and snatch the ball out of the air to touch down for a veritable try of the season contender. Mausia’s conversion missed the target but the visitors held a narrow lead at the break.
With both sides reconvening in fresh, clean kit, the hosts went over almost from the restart. Centre Levi Roper cut through and ran in from 20 metres after a winning scrum and Parks again added the extras.
With battle rejoined, and Herculean efforts from both sides, Jack Doorey-Palmer forced his way over to regain the lead, Mausia this time adding the requisite two-pointer. But Nottingham forged ahead with another converted close-in score from their driving maul, with Arthur Allen getting what proved to be the winner with 20 minutes left to play.
That last quarter was frightening in its intensity, with the visitors vying for victory and being denied time after time by ferocious Archers’ defence. Two line outs late on failed to provide the final push for the winner – shades of another encounter in similar conditions on the same field – and the battle was lost.
So, it was, in the end, a desperately disappointing evening for a Cambridge side that very much deserved that elusive first win of the season.
Teams
Nottingham
Williams, Rokomoce, Christian-Goss, Roper, Graham, Parks, Yarnell; Scio, Dickinson, Scharink, Ramply, Ecclesfield, S Green, M Green, Cherry
Bench – Allen, Stott, Richardson, Etete, Rees, Wright, Goodwin, West
Cambridge
Currie, J Green, Reweti, Sorrell, Qaniuci, Mausia, Dawson; Ellwood, Doorey-Palmer, Walker, Fulford, McCay, Thomas, Eckersley, Timpson
Reinforcements- Irvine, Maka, Masoe, Baxter, Lawrence, Mills, Thompson, Rokodrava
Scorers
Nottingham
Tries – Ecclesfield 27, Roper 41, Allen 60
Conversions – Parks 28, 42, 61
Cambridge
Tries – Eckersley 14, Green 29, Doorey-Palmer 49
Conversion – Mausia 50