OUTLAWS 42 LIVERPOOL BUCCANEERS 24
Report by Ant Bullick
Nottingham Outlaws returned to winning ways in style with a comfortable 42-24 victory over Liverpool Buccaneers on Saturday, at The Bay.
The match was billed as a six-pointer going into kick off with both teams struggling for results this year and Nottingham did not disappoint their home crowd running in eight tries against Liverpool, who had two men sin-binned in the second half.
The Buccaneers made the trip down to Nottingham with a game plan of using their big guys to eat metres up inside allowing room for their dynamic duo of Martin Gambles and Sean Forber but the Outlaws defence refused to allow this to happen which laid the platform for the win.
Head coach Martin Crick was without the services of England Lionheart Nathan Walmsley, centre Chris McNamara and the long injury list including the likes of Tom Tsang and Si Perry but had Oliver Crick, Simon Chilcott and Nick Cooper return to the match day squad.
It was Cooper who got the scoring underway as Liverpool paid the price for two penalties for high tackles. Forwards Adam Millward and Bryn Waldram drove the ball into the heart of the Liverpool defence before Paul Calland switched play to Jimmy Lewis with a long pass and the Outlaw's stand-off delayed his pass long enough to create room for Cooper to touch down.
Straight from the ensuing kick-off, Nottingham doubled their advantage. Dom Walsh collected the kick-off and handed the ball to Millward who broke four tackles and the prop went 90 metres to make it 8-0. Calland made it 10-0 with the boot.
The lead was cut short five minutes later when Buccaneer's winger Rich Bryant took advantage of a Melbourne Weir knock on and then a penalty for offside.
The next two tries went to the home side and came off the back of two try-saving tackles.
First, Dom Walsh, playing full-back in the absence of Walmsley, forced a knock on at the line as Liverpool looked certain to score before George Strachan broke through the line and combined with the supporting Simon Morton to send Calland in for the four points.
Then centre Tom Cliffe, replacing the absent McNamara, performed his own try-saving tackle forcing a knock on at the line before Cooper went in for his second score of the game racing down the left touch line. Calland made no mistake with the boot.
The Outlaws captain then got a try himself right on half-time. The scrum-half showed the pass wide before darting inside for the score. Calland converted his own try to send the hosts 26-4 up at the break
Nottingham got the second half off to a flyer with Calland and O Crick sending Weir in for the score. Calland kicked the extras to extend the lead to 32-4.
Liverpool full-back Matt Garner grabbed a brace of tries over the next 10 minutes to cut the deficit to 32-14 but Weir replied with a sucker punch five minutes later after Liverpool lost the ball on their own twenty. Calland made it a mountain to climb for the visitors adding the conversion.
Frustration grew within the Liverpool team and two players were sin-binned sixty seconds apart, Alan Chadwick and Mark Webster both shown yellow for a swinging arm.
Despite the odds being firmly stacked against them, the Merseysiders kept on battling and scored the next two tries as they went in search of a bonus point.
Bryant was the next player to claim his second try of the game making Nottingham pay for being offside and centre Joel Parker put Liverpool within touch of grabbing a bonus point with a try 5 minutes from the end.
Nottingham dug deep to ensure Liverpool went away with nothing and a brilliant piece of play from Calland on the stroke of full-time put the final nail in the coffin.
Weir's jinking run was well supported by his captain and the winger off-loaded the ball in the tackle to Calland who kicked it long down the wing into open space and beat everyone to the ball to make it 42-24.
Head coach Martin Crick was pleased to finally get a win after a run of six straight defeats.
He said, "The lads really deserved that victory out there today. It's been a long time in coming has that and we have deserved more of them throughout the season but not got them.
"This match marked the start of the second half of the season and we have begun it with a win. And a vital one at that.
"If we had lost this match we would have had our work cut out for us to make the play-offs but this team thrives on that sort of pressure and once again they have come up with the goods.
"They were absolutely fantastic out there. Chilcott and Ads (Millward) were superb as ever but I thought Bryn played magnificently today on both sides of the ball. He had a big game."
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