Nottingham Outlaws succumbed to a disappointing 30–6 loss against local rivals Sherwood Wolf Hunt at Debdale Park on Friday evening, a defeat that leaves the Outlaws’ hopes of a play-off spot well and truly hanging in the balance.
A strong Outlaws squad travelled two junctions up the M1 and started strongly, peppering the try line of the home side, but some over-eager play and resolute home defending meant that the Outlaws’ early dominance went unrewarded.
With 15 minutes gone, it had been all Outlaws in the opening exchanges, but with one of their few forays into the Outlaws’ red zone, Sherwood broke the deadlock by scoring in the corner to open up a 4–0 lead.
Stung by this reversal, the Outlaws upped the ante and went back on the attack.
Once more it looked like their efforts might be for nothing, but they finally got their rewards when a superbly weighted Whitfield grubber just held up in the Sherwood in-goal area, and Harry Hemmingway won the race to the ball to score a well-executed try. Whitfield added the extras to nudge the Outlaws 4–6 ahead with ten minutes of the half remaining.
It looked like the Outlaws’ ascendancy would see them go into the break ahead, but a two-try haul either side of the break saw the match swing very much in Sherwood’s favour.
The problems started in the last minute of the first half, when back-to-back penalties piggybacked the home side into the Outlaws’ red zone and they capitalised with a try under the sticks.
Then, straight from the restart of the second half, the Outlaws were forced into touch and from the resultant scrum, the Outlaws conceded to find themselves 14–6 in arrears.
The travelling support hoped for a positive response from their favourites, but instead they were treated to a string of errors as the Outlaws forced the pass on too many occasions, which meant their completion rate plummeted and they were continually forced back on defence, starved of possession when they desperately needed to get their hands on the ball.
Sherwood had already shown that they knew their way over the whitewash and, with a glut of possession and field position, they began to put the Outlaws to the sword with a string of well-executed attacks that brought no fewer than three tries without response to well and truly put the game to bed, with the Outlaws well beaten at 30–6.
Despite the defeat, a few players were in the shout for the man of the match award. Coryn Ward did his best to rouse his troops with an all-action display, but the award went to young winger Harry Hemmingway, who battled hard for the full eighty minutes and grabbed the only Outlaws try.
After the game, a shell-shocked Outlaws squad contemplated a defeat that meant they now have to travel to unbeaten Telford on Saturday, and nothing less than a victory will be needed to keep their top-two hopes alive.
