Nottingham Outlaws faced league newcomers Aston Warriors at a sweltering Lenton Lane on Saturday, with both sides desperate to register their first win of the season.
It proved to be a close affair, with the lead changing hands on three occasions before the Outlaws eventually prevailed for a hard-earned and very much-needed 22-18 victory.
The Outlaws went into the match with a number of changes to the team that lost against Telford the week before. This included the return of James Hood, Steve Page, Cam Frater and Aiden Butler for their first hit-out of the season, as well as a first-team debut for winger Tom Pardo. The new-look side also included the welcome return of Outlaws stalwart Alex Whittle, who was pulling on an Outlaws shirt for the first time in several years!
The match appeared evenly balanced in the opening exchanges, with neither side exerting any sustained pressure, not helped by the rising temperatures and a high penalty count for both sides. However, it was the Outlaws who drew first blood on sixteen minutes when Aiden Butler fed Coryn Ward with a short, flat pass and the club captain shot under the posts to open the scoring. Jacob Rigby added the extras to open up a 6-0 scoreline in favour of the Outlaws.
The pre-match message from Head Coach Joe Shephard was one of set completion and getting to the final kick, but as the first half continued, this lesson was soon forgotten by his charges. A string of lost possessions early in the tackle count, compounded by a string of penalties, meant that the remaining twenty-five minutes of the half were played almost exclusively in and around the Outlaws’ forty.
A resurgent Warriors side soon capitalised on their monopoly of possession, with two quick-fire tries seeing the visitors take the lead at 6-10, and at this point the omens did not look good for an Outlaws win. However, in the final five minutes of the half, the Outlaws regained the lead with two quick-fire tries of their own.
The first was a wonderful solo effort by Aiden Butler, who twice dummied to pass before waltzing through a gap in the Warriors defence, which Rigby converted to push the Outlaws back in front at 12-10. Then, on the stroke of half-time, a superb fifteen-metre cut-out pass from Rigby saw the ball reach Jack Jonson out wide, who scored to stretch the Outlaws’ lead to 16-10 at the end of the first stanza.
The second half started in much the same way as much of the first half had unfolded, with the Outlaws starved of possession thanks to a never-ending string of penalties, and it came as no surprise when Aston reduced the deficit to 16-14 after sixty minutes. However, the Outlaws managed to dig in, and a rare foray into the Warriors’ red zone saw powerful prop Sam Andrews power over for his first try of the campaign. Rigby converted from bang in front and, at 22-14, the Outlaws held a two-score lead for the first time in the game.
Indeed, they were glad of this cushion as, not for the first time this season, they made a mess of the restart to allow Aston the opportunity to score a try out of nothing, but to their credit they managed to hold on for a hard-earned 22-18 victory.
The mood after the game was certainly one of relief as the Outlaws had managed to hold on for a much-needed victory in what was a stop-start encounter littered with penalties. The victory came on the back of some good scrambling defence that did not wilt in the sweltering heat, along with some fine individual performances. The player of the match award was a tough one to call. Jacob Rigby and Aiden Butler came close to glory, with both having great games in the halves, but it was a tireless performance by young forward Luke Grocock that caught the eye, as the young gun deservedly took the silverware!
