Nottingham Outlaws entertained league leaders Siddal at Lenton Lane on Saturday hoping to end a four match losing sequence. However, despite battling hard they were no match for their unbeaten visitors and the outgunned Outlaws ended up on the wrong end of a 46-6 score line.
The Outlaws were forced into additional changes on the morning of the game when James Amachree failed a fitness test; the loss meant that player-coach, Adam Cunliffe, teamed up with Charlie Clarke in the half-back roles with Jimmy Goodwin coming back into the side and forming a new-look center partnership with Gaz Whitfield.
In the forward-line, Tyler Beardsley came back into the front row alongside youngster Joe Moran, who pulled on the all-important number nine shirt. The back three of Ward, Treble and Whittle remained unchanged from last weekend. There was also plenty of size on the bench with James Hood returning from injury and joining James Gisborne and Steve Page as forward replacements, utility back Sailosi Wakawaka completing the seventeen.
If the Outlaws were to stand any chance of getting something out of the game they needed to make a good start, but they did the exact opposite, struggling to advance the ball out of their red zone from the kick-off and, when the visitors took possession, they quickly posted their intent when bursting through some weak, home defending, and opening up a 6-0 lead with two minutes on the clock.
Stung by the reversal, the Outlaws stormed back up the pitch and, within a minute of the Siddal score, scored a try themselves; a short pass from the acting-half caught the visitors napping with prop, Sam Andrews, latching onto the ball to crash over for a well taken effort. Gaz Whitfield added the extras to level the scores.
Unfortunately for the Outlaws it proved to be the only time they were destined to get over the try line throughout the encounter.
Having got themselves back into the game, the Outlaws immediately found themselves up against it, Charlie Clarke being somewhat harshly sin-binned for a late challenge, and, whilst the Outlaws were down to twelve men, they fell behind again, once more guilty of some lacklustre tackling which Siddal punished with a clinical try to move into a 12-6 lead.
In recent weeks the Outlaws have found themselves leaking tries at alarming rates in certain stages of the game and, in the remaining minutes of the first half, it happened again. With ten minutes left on the clock the home defence melted away as the rampant visitors ran riot, posting no fewer than four unanswered tries in a devastating spell that put the game well and truly beyond reach of a shell-shocked Outlaws.
Mercifully, the referee drew the first half to a close but, with the scoreboard registering a 30-6 deficit, there was little the coaching staff could do other than throw all of their substitutes into the fray in an attempt to get something out of the game.
The pace of the game slowed visibly in the second half as heat and humidity began to take its toll and, to be fair to the Outlaws, they began to get to grips with the visitors attacks, Whitfield and Clarke shored up the edge defence with some good communication and tackling, thus holding the Outlaws line intact.
However, on attack, the Outlaws could make little or no impression on the Siddal line, and the chances of an Outlaws score always looked continuously remote.
After spending long periods encamped in their own half, the Outlaws defence finally ran out of steam and the visitors’ superior fitness begun to shine through, the scoreboard starting to tick over with an unforgiving Siddal team running in another three tries, closing out the game with a commanding 46-6 victory.
After the game the players gathered to hear who was going to take home the man-of-the-match award. There were a few players in the mix with Adam Cunliffe getting a mention on attack, with both Coryn Ward and Charlie Clarke showing up on defence. However the bubbly deservedly went to centre Gaz Whitfield for some great work in defence and with ball in hand.
Next weekend the Outlaws travel up the M1 to face Brighouse and will be looking to avenge a 34-12 home defeat by the newly promoted outfit.
*Article provided by Peter Mann (Senior Correspondent).
*Main image @OutlawsRL Sam Andrews crosses over for an Outlaws try.