Craig Hammond’s Nottingham side inflicted a small amount of revenge on Premiership giants, Leicester Tigers, this past Friday night, a stunning, second half performance seeing them run out 40-17 winners at Lady Bay.

Granted the Tigers fielded a youthful side, only Joshua Manz appearing from the side that in the Premiership Cup clash last month, whilst the Archers fielded a mixture of youth and experience.

A tight first half would see both sides register a pair of tries, the hosts converting their second for a narrow, 14-12, interval lead; Archie Vanes and Charlie Davies both crossed for the visitors, their efforts sandwiched between an early, Aman Johal opener, following a combination with his twin, Jai Johal, and five minutes before the break from Antonio Harris, escaping a maul to score and from which Jai Johal converted.

The second half though would see the Archers run away with it, but not after the young Tigers had taken an early lead, James Cleland giving a three-point advantage, 17-14, after forty-three minutes.

After that, it was one-way traffic for the home side, they running in four, unanswered tries, taking their tally to six under the Friday Night Lights, in a great display of attacking rugby.

Man-of-the-match, Ryan Olowofela, opened the floodgates, emerging from the scrum and crossing to put his side two in-front, and they never looked back; eight minutes later a cross-field kick from Jamie Annand fell nicely for Rokomoce to score, Annand converting, and the Archers were motoring through the gears.

The final fifteen minutes would see two further scores from the hosts, two of the Archers’ regular starters getting in on the act with Harry Graham (Annand converts) pushing the home tally past thirty points, on sixty-six minutes, and, with six minutes remaining, David Williams (Annand converts), completed the scoring.

NOTTINGHAM XV – Aniseko Sio, Antonio Harris, Xavier Valentine, Jack Shine, Sean Beevor, Kody Vereti, Jacob Wright, Jay Ecclesfield, Will Yarnell, Jai Johal, Ryan Olowofela, Javiah Pohe, Aman Johal, Luke Rokomoce, Jack Stapley (capt)

The Archers’ next outing, again at Lady Bay, is this coming Friday (7 March) when they welcome British Army Rugby; ticket information available HERE

*Article provided by Peter Mann (Senior Correspondent).

*Main image @NottinghamRugby action between Nottingham and Leicester Tigers.