Nottingham Rugby are third in the Greene King RFU Championship after six games played, the Archers latest victory, their fourth of the season, coming on Friday night at Lady Bay against second bottom Richmond.
The home side continued their fine start to the season with an opening try of the evening on fourteen minutes produced by skipper Josh Poullet, pushing over after a maul, Hollingsworth’s kick unsuccessful, but he soon made up for that after crossing over himself, after 24 minutes the fly half going over with a try before converting the extras for a 12-0 lead.
Richmond fought back after a quick penalty was capitalised on by Paul Kiernan to touch down with the extras kicked but Charlie Thacker then went over for Nottingham to restore advantage, but on the stroke of half time Richmond pulled a try back to leave the scores at 19-12 in Nottingham’s favour.
Craig Hammond’s team in green pulled away just four minutes into the second forty as Liam Slatem went down, getting in on a loose ball from Richmond’s own scrum.
Mpiko did reply for Richmond quickly after but Ryan Olowofela responded within two minutes to help the home team to an eleven point lead, the winger finding space on the left to race over the paint and touch down for Nottingham’s sixth of the night.
Time for more, as Toby Williams pushed over following a line-out, by this time Richmond reduced to fourteen with the sin binned Ted Landray off the field. The away side did get a bonus point try late on when Mpiko went over for a second of the night but Nottingham had the last laugh, Scott Hall touching down a first try for Nottingham before Morgan Bunting kicked the extras, a convincing and entertaining 45-26 win for a team in fine form so far this season.
Elsewhere, in the Regional 1 North Division, West Bridgford picked up their first points of the season, in a cracking all Notts affair against Paviors at Stamford Road. The home side winning by just two points, 28-26, coming back from 19-0 down they turned things around to score all their points unanswered before a late comeback by the away side fell short, the points still leave West Bridgford bottom of the table with six points from seven games whilst Paviors, now tenth in the table with fifteen points, will see the match as missed opportunity, a win would have had them in the top six.
In Regional 2 North Midlands there was an away win for Newark at Leicester Forest. The visitors edging their rivals by four points to win 28-24.
In Counties 1 Midlands East, Mellish are still going strong, sitting second in the table a point behind leaders Hinckley II, Mellish beat Loughborough 34-13 on Mapperley top on Saturday, elsewhere in the division Southwell, who are seventh in the table, received a home walkover after Coalville failed to field a team, their opponents pulling out of the match last minute, on Friday evening.
*Main image @NottinghamRugby an entertaining game at Lady Bay ended with Nottingham win.
