In an absolutely barnstorming game, Cambridge narrowly missed out on their first win of the season, edged out by Nottingham after failing to cross the line on the last play of the afternoon.
Head Coach Craig Newby was gutted for his side afterwards, but admitted they still have much to work on. “We actually deserved to win, I think. Rugby doesn’t care if you deserve it or not – it kicks you in the guts and holds you down when you’re down. We played some unreal stuff in that first half and we’ve got to keep fighting our way out of this. We took our opportunities, defended well, we were smart. In the second half we ended up in fight mode, damage limitation mode, so that was disappointing. But this teams all about not giving up. We’ll keep on hitting that rock until it cracks”.
The Archers opened the scoring against the run of play. Wing David Williams raced over in the corner, with the extras going begging. The hosts, though, responded with three tremendous tries.
South African lock Rhys Fulford stormed into open veldt to dive over. Zac Nearchou – last week’s hero – added the second after a remarkable passage of skill from centre Jasper Sorrell, who burgled the ball, sent it towards the Archers line, and broke the ball in contact for Nearchou to touch down. Then Ethan Thorne crashed over in the corner on debut. Jamie Annand added two from three conversions and a penalty to boot for 22-5 at the break.
Cambridge had a clear plan for the second half – the Archers had had a half time rollicking. The effect of that dressing down saw them score three times themselves in 10 minutes after the restart. Eight James Cherry got the first. Scrum half Josh Goodwin got the next, sniping round the fringes. And wing Sam Mercer tied the scores out wide for Gwyn Parks to nudge the visitors ahead off the tee.
Centre Levi Reweti broke through to regain the Cambridge lead – but that served only to sting Nottingham into a spectacular response as Will Yarnell got the final touch on the try of the match as they went coast-to-coast. Michael Green then profited from a scorching move up the right-hand touch line to – ostensibly – make the game safe for the visitors.
As it happened, it was, but only just. Dan Eckersley dove over to reduce the deficit to four points. And a yellow card for the Archers’ Mink Sharink for a deliberate knock-on at the death turned out to be a game-saver. Cambridge just failed to wrestle their way over the line following a driving maul from the line out from the resultant penalty.
Archers Head Coach Craig Hammond felt they’d got away with it on the day. “Fair play to Cambridge – they’ve got some outstanding players and they put us under some real pressure. We were a bit shell-shocked at half time – hence the rollicking – so I’m proud of the boys for responding and getting five points on the road like this.”
Teams
Cambridge
Mausia 7 (Glister 30 7) Green 7, Reweti 8, Sorrell 9, Thorne 7 (Rokodrava 43 7) , Annand 8, Dawson 7 (Thompson 66 7); Nearchou 7 (Boal 39 7), Doorey-Palmer 7 (Irvine 57 7), Walker 7 (Wulf-Masoe 77) , Fulford 8 (Yallop 80) Baxter 8, Thomas 7 (Mills 57 7), Eckersley 8, Adams 8
Nottingham
Mitchell 7, Williams 8, Davies 7 (West 66 6), Christian-Goss 7, Mercer 7, Park 7, Goodwin 7 (Yarnell 55 7); Stott 7 (Sio 55 7), Brownlie 7 (Dickinson 47 7), Richardson 7 (Sharink 55 6) Etete , Thomas, Rees 7 (M Green 47 Rees 54 M Green 66 7) S Green 7 Cherry 8
Scorers
Cambridge
Tries – Fulford 13, Nearchou 35, Thorne 40, Rewet 61i, Eckersley 72
Conversions – Annand 14, 36
Penalty – Annand
Nottingham
Tries – Williams, 9 Cherry 48 Goodwin 55 Mercer 57 Yarnell 66 Green 68
Conversions – Parks 47, 58, 67
HT 22-5 FT 32-36
Attendance – 1,267
Referee Charles Gayther
Star Player – Jasper Sorrell (Cambridge)
Scrums Won 5/3
Scrums Lost 1/1
Line Outs Won 8/5
Line Outs Lost 1/3
Penalties Against 14/11