Craig Hammond’s Nottingham Rugby made it two-wins-from-two to start the new Championship season, winning 41-28 in the first game at Lady Bay, against visiting Ampthill.
Having played five games in the new-look Premiership Cup prior to the league season beginning, the Archers have certainly hit the ground running, racking up up points and tries galore in their opening two outings.
It was a game that would see the hosts run in seven tries, and Marcus Ramage double his tally early season with another double (four tries in two games), but they were made to battle for the win after Joseph Woodward had afforded the hosts an early lead.
The visitors hit back, hard, with a pair of tries, from Benjamin Chapman and Harvey Beaton, and two successful conversions from Gwyn Parks, the visitors moving to a 14-5 lead inside the opening twenty-five minutes.
As was at Caldy, the scores spurred the Archers into action and Harry Graham, Morgan Bunting, and Marcus Ramage all crossed to turn the game on its head, Bunting converting both his own, and Ramage’s tries as the Archers led 26-14 at the break.
Joshua Skelcey crossed for Ampthill midway through the second to move them within five, then re-took the lead after 65 minutes when Peter White added a try of his own to lead 28-26 with a little over ten left on the clock.
The Archers though continued to battle and were rewarded with three more tries in the closing stages, first Ramage completed his double with ten left, then Harry Clayton crossed as the game moved into the final five, before Come Joussain added another in the dying seconds, the Archers quickly moving from two behind with twelve left, to winning by thirteen.
Notting Rugby Starting XV – Kai Owen, Antonio Harris, Xavier Valentine, Come Joussain, Tom Manz, Scott Hall, James Cherry, George Cox, Michael Stronge, Morgan Bunting, Harry Graham, Joseph Woodward, Marcus Ramage, David Williams, Ellis Mee
Only a handful of clubs managed to play at grassroots level, one success witnessed from the four Nottinghamshire clubs in action over the weekend.
Southwell went down 36-14 at home to Loughborough in the Counties 1 Midlands East (North); Worksop suffered a seventh straight defeat in the Counties 3 Midlands East (N) when losing 43-19 away to mid-table Matlock IIs; and in Counties 3 Midlands East (C) Mellish IIs also suffered a heavy defeat for their sixth defeat in seven, losing 55-12 at mid-table Rolls Royce.
The only victor was Nottingham Moderns in the Counties 2 Midlands East (N), when at Ashby under the Friday Night Lights; a sixth win in seven saw the Moderns within nine points of leaders Kesteven, after seven games, following a narrow, 10-0 win on the road.
*Article provided by Peter Mann (Senior Correspondent).
*Main image @NottinghamRugby a second win of the season for Nottingham in the league.
