Nottingham Outlaws travelled to Birmingham Bulldogs on Saturday to kick off their 2025 Midlands Premier League campaign against the team they beat in last year’s semi-final play-off.
In a see-saw game, the Outlaws saw a healthy first-half lead disappear in a second-half battle for survival, but they hung on to record a hard-earned 26-22 victory.
The Outlaws went into the game once again led by captain Coryn Ward and a squad boasting three league debutants: Michael Adeyemi, Conor Morrisey, and George Christodoulou. However, any early-season optimism was soon put to the test when the Outlaws lost the ball after receiving the kick-off, and from the resultant scrum, they conceded a try to trail 6-0 with the new season less than a minute old!
Despite the horror start, the Outlaws remained unfazed and began to put together their sets in assured fashion, slowly dominating field position. They opened their account on ten minutes when Michael Adeyemi scored with his first touch of the ball, picking up a Birmingham fumble to go over in the corner and peg the deficit back to 6-4.
With the Outlaws playing at a whirlwind pace, the Bulldogs were struggling to keep up with the speed of the Outlaws’ play-the-ball, and it came as no surprise when Coryn Ward grabbed the Outlaws’ second try from ten metres out, despite the attention of three home defenders. Whitfield converted from bang in front, and the Outlaws edged ahead 10-6 at the thirty-minute mark.
It was a lead they would hold for the remainder of the game.
The Bulldogs were now starting to wilt in the face of an Outlaws attack firing on all cylinders, and in the final ten minutes of the first half, the visitors scorched in for three quick-fire tries.
The first try in this spell came from Luke Wadding, who finished off a fine move down the line to plant the ball down without a hand laid on him. A riposte by the Bulldogs pegged the score back to 16-12, but it was soon cancelled out by a second of the game for Michael Adeyemi, who dived over from short range after Clarke Squires was held up just shy of the line.
Harry Hemmingway opened his account with the last play of the half, latching onto a long-range pass to scoot in at the corner. Whitfield nudged two out of three over the bar, and the half ended with the Outlaws firmly in command at 26-12.
The coaching staff used the interval to make several changes as Butler, Hemmingway Snr, Gisborne, and Burgin joined the fray to add fresh legs to the side.
The second half started brightly for the Outlaws. Indeed, in the opening fifteen minutes, they dominated field position and territory, setting up camp in the Bulldogs’ red zone and hammering away at the home line. However, a combination of missed chances and some scrambling home defence prevented the Outlaws from adding to their score, and their dominance went unrewarded.
As so often happens in rugby league, their failure to capitalise on opportunities was punished. In their first foray into the Outlaws’ half, the Bulldogs showed how to score, moving the ball crisply down the line to touch down from a well-worked overlap. Ten minutes later, they crossed again with a short-range effort to reduce the deficit to 26-22.
With ten minutes remaining, nerves were jangling amongst the travelling faithful in a game that appeared to be slipping away from a stunned Outlaws side.
Despite the wobble, the Outlaws stiffened their resolve and slowly wrested back control of the game with some fine defending and strong carries from the forwards, led by man of the match Sam Andrews, who had a superb game both in attack and defence.
When the final whistle went, there were visible signs of relief on the faces of the Outlaws players, coaching staff and supporters—thankful for an opening victory that almost slipped through their fingers.
The Outlaws’ 2025 home campaign starts on Friday with a game under the lights at Lenton Lane against local rivals Sherwood Wolf Hunt (kick-off 8.00pm).
