Report by Ant Bullick
A last minute try from the Royal Artillery secured a thrilling 27-24 victory over Nottingham Outlaws as they retained the Heroes Trophy today at Harvey Hadden.
Outlaws scrum-half Greg Moore looked to have won it for the hosts as a superb solo try from the play-maker gave Nottingham a three point advantage heading into the final two minutes.
However, the Gunners displayed their never-say-die attitude and kept battling until the end and were rewarded for their efforts with a try moments before the final whistle brought an entertaining and physical contest to a close.
The match was held to raise money for ABF The Soldier’s Charity and Royal Artillery Charitable Fund and also marked the return of Rugby League to Harvey Hadden Stadium.
The bumper crowd was treated to fast, free flowing Rugby from the Outlaws but it was the Gunners who shot out into an early 14-0 lead as a lack of match practice from Nottingham, playing only their second pre-season game, played its part in the opening exchanges.
The Outlaws threatened early on but Moore had a pass intercepted which was returned 80 metres by the visitors to go 4-0 up despite a spirited chase from Dom Walsh and Melbourne Weir.
And five minutes later it went from bad to worse for Nottingham as a knock-on gifted the Gunners excellent field position which they took full advantage of to go 10-0 up after the conversion.
As the Outlaws continued to knock the rust off, a penalty for holding down put the Gunners deep in Nottingham territory and they extended their lead with another try to go 14-0 up.
The Outlaws, coached by Simon Morton making his coaching debut, began to settle down after this point and started to play the kind of Rugby League their fans have come to expect – fast, entertaining and a lot of ball playing.
It started to prove too much for the Gunners to handle and two high tackles in as many minutes saw them reduced to 12 men.
And Nottingham capitalised on the man advantage as they piled the pressure on the Gunners and after Outlaws’ centre Walsh broke the line and raced away, he was well supported by last season’s top try scorer Weir who touched down for the Outlaws.
Greg Moore made no mistake with the boot.
And as half-time approached, the Outlaws’ fans were cheering again as they closed the gap to two points.
A big defensive effort stopped the Gunners scoring against the odds and after getting the ball back, Nottingham worked their way up the field with a mixture of good runs and slick passing to carve open their opponents.
The opening twenty minutes of the second half were well controlled by the Outlaws, despite being down to 12 men after Bryn Waldram saw yellow for a high shot.
And as the forward returned to the fray, Tom Atkinson, making his first grade debut for Nottingham, went in the opposite direction as tempers threatened to boil over.
Luckily for the home side, Walsh was in exceptional form and sliced through the Gunners defence before finding Weir and the winger grabbed his second try of the game as the Outlaws took the lead for the first time of the afternoon 18-14.
The lead lasted just four minutes as another Moore interception was punished as the ball was returned 70 metres for the score as the Gunners went 20-18 up.
The Royal Artillery had one eye on closing the game out with 5 minutes remaining and scored a drop goal leaving the Outlaws trailing by three points.
But with two minutes left the Outlaws went from underneath their own sticks, aided by strong runs from forwards George Strachan and Waldram before Moore collected his own chip over the defence and stepped the full-back to send the Outlaws’ supporters and players into raptures with the Heroes Trophy seemingly theirs.
However, there was to be one last twist as the Royal Artillery grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat to retain the trophy and condemn Nottingham to their second last-minute defeat of the pre-season.
Acting Head Coach Simon Morton said: “I obviously have mixed feelings as it was my first game in charge but the loss puts a dampener on things a little bit.
“I’m really proud of the lads and how they performed today and I think it’s very evident what we are building here at the club after that game today.
“We have a great bunch of lads who are willing to work for each other out there and not all teams have that.
“It was only our second game of the pre-season and there was some rust that needed knocking off at the start of the game but once that happened the lads settled down and we began to chuck the ball about and play Outlaws Rugby.
“The two interceptions that led to tries and the two sin-binnings hampered our cause for victory but I’m extremely proud of the players and they deserved to be lifting that trophy at the end of the game in front of their home fans.
“But that’s Rugby League. If you make mistakes you are likely to get punished and we did But like I say, to say that was just our second outing of 2011 we played some extremely good Rugby and I’m confident this group of players can produce the goods in 2011.”
Outlaws’ Chairman Richard Johnson was glad to see Rugby League return to Harvey Hadden and was pleased to see a good turn out at the game.
He said: “The result was always second today behind raising as much money as possible for the two charities and as always, the club was more than willing to aid in assisting this.
“It was of course disappointing not to win on our first appearance at Harvey Hadden and we were very well supported and I’m sure the attendances will grow as the season goes on and people hear about the fun and entertainment we provide both on and off the pitch.
“I’m also very grateful to Tom Burgess who took time out from his duties with the Bradford Bulls to come and be our guest of honour for the day.
“Overall it was a fantastic occasion and although the club lost the game, the real winners were the two charities and the fantastic supporters who came to watch.”
|
