Nottingham Outlaws travelled to Brighouse Rangers on Saturday for their latest Yorkshire Premier League outing still searching for a win after a run of five successive defeats.
The Notts side headed north with a squad ravaged by injury and Covid withdrawals and, despite battling hard at times, they were always behind in the game before finishing on the wrong end of a heavy defeat.
The Outlaws knew it was going to be a tough day at the office, the flurry of withdrawals and injuries seeing them make no fewer than ten changes to the team that took to the field only seven days earlier.
Digging deep into their reserves in order to get a full, 17-man side, out on the pitch, indeed, such was the emergency, that net had to be cast even wider as Roddy Jonas (pictured) and Daniel Ford, were hastily signed on short-term contracts from the Leicester Phoenix, as well as the Frenchman, Mathieu Paques, also being brought in, they making emergency debuts in a new look back-line.
There was a plethora of changes in the front six too, Liam Heaney and Harrison Ashby making debuts, along with that of Stew Readhead, Liam Harrison and Jamie Muggleton providing emergency covers for the forwards on the bench.
The match started badly for the Outlaws, they making a hash of the kick-off, conceding a penalty for offside when trying to gather the ball, putting themselves under immediate pressure.
Although the Outlaws managed to repel the immediate danger they then dropped the ball on the first tackle back in possession, conceding back-to-back sets on their own line and with it, an opening 6-0 lead to the hosts with barely two minutes on the clock.
Despite the shaky start, the new-look Outlaws rallied and the game became much more even and, over the ensuing, twenty minute period, it was the visitors asking all the questions, twice being held up over the line before Dan Ford burst through on a short ball to touch down, the equalising effort though was subsequently disallowed, somewhat harshly, for a forward pass.
With thirty-five minutes played the Outlaws appeared to be on the ascendancy, but they failed to grab the scores that their dominance deserved and, as so often happens, they were made to pay for their failure to take their chances.
The problems started from deep when a missed tackle saw the Rangers scorch sixty metres up-field to score, and then, two minutes later, the Outlaws failed to number up out wide, this, in turn allowed the Rangers winger to stroll in at the corner.
As the first half whistle went, the Outlaws were looking down the barrel of an 18-0 deficit, despite having played so well in large stretches of the first period.
The interval gave coaches a chance to refresh resources as the evergreen duo of Readhead and Muggleton came on, Liam Harrison joining them from the bench to make a completely new front row in an effort to stem the hosts’ fast-rising tide.
The second stanza started in pretty much the same way as the first, the Outlaws conceding a try in the first set following some poor tackling and, from the get-go, it was apparent the Outlaws were very quickly starting to run out of gas, a worrying sight for the travelling supporters.
During the first period the Outlaws tackling held firm for long periods with Coryn Ward, Harrison Ashby and Charlie Clarke in particular leading the way with some crunching tackles, however, as the second half unfolded, the rapidly tiring Outlaws began to drop off the tackle and with it came more Rangers tries.
Indeed, the wilting Outlaws conceded twice in a devastating, five-minute spell, in which the Rangers capitalised on some weak tackling around the ruck to extend their lead to 34-0.
To their credit though, the Outlaws rallied, and eventually got some reward that their efforts so richly deserved.
The score started with a break by the elusive debutant, Roddy Jonas, who released the long-striding Albert Paskevic; he subsequently drew the Rangers full-back before offloading to Adam Cunliffe who, in turn, touched down to put the Outlaws on the scoreboard at last. Cunliffe then added the extras from in-front of the posts, they at least giving the Outlaws some respite at 34-6.
Again the Outlaws did their best to limit the damage on the restart but they were powerless to stop the hosts adding to their tally with three more late scores wrapping up yet another, heavy reversal, the scoreboard showing a 48-6 defeat for the Outlaws.
As the tired but far from dispirited visitors left the pitch there were still a few Outlaws in the hunt for the man-of-the-match award, there being no complaints when centre Roddy Jonas, who demonstrated some fine footwork all afternoon, collected in a great debut outing.
After the match Outlaws player-coach Adam Cunliffe remained upbeat, yet realistic, in his assessment of the game, commenting: “It was a tough game today with so many changes affecting our performance.
“However, the effort was there, we just lacked that rugby league nous defensively at times and that is something we will continue to work on going forward.”
The Outlaws now have a two-week break before heading back north to face New Earswick, they sitting just below the Nottinghamshire side in the league.
*Article provided by Peter Mann (Senior Correspondent).
*Main image OutlawsRL Nottingham debutant Roddy Jones with the carry.