Nottingham Outlaws travelled to Birmingham Bulldogs on Saturday to kick off their 2025 Midlands Premier League campaign against the team they beat in last years semi-final play-off. In a see-saw game the Outlaws saw a healthy first half lead disappear in a second half battle for survival but they hung on to record a hard-earned 26-22 victory.
The Outlaws went into the game once again led by captain Coryn Ward and a squad boasting three league debutants including Michael Adeyemi, Conor Morrisey and George Christodoulou. However any early-season optimism was soon put to the test when the Outlaws lost the ball after receiving the kick-off and from the resultant scrum, they conceded a try to trail 6-0 with the new season less than a minute old!
Despite the horror-start the Outlaws remained unfazed and began to put together their sets in assured fashion, slowly dominating field position and they opened their account on ten minutes when Michael Adeyemi opened his league account with his first touch of the ball. picking up a Birmingham fumble to score in the corner to peg the deficit back to 6-4.
With the Outlaws playing at a whirlwind pace the Bulldogs were struggling to keep up with the speed of the Outlaws pal-the-ball and it came as no surprise when Coryn Ward grabbed the Outlaws second try from ten metres out, despite the attention of three home defenders. Whitfield converted from bang in front and the Outlaws went into a narrow 10-6 lead on the thirty minute mark.
It was a lead they were destined to hold for the remainder of the game.
The Bulldogs were now starting to wilt in the face of an Outlaws attack that was firing on all cylinders and in the remaining ten minutes of the first stanza they scorched in for three quick-fire trys.
The first try in this whirlwind phase came from Luke Wadding who finished off a fine move down the line to plant the ball down without a hand laid on him.
A riposte by the Bulldogs pegged them back to 16-12 but it was soon cancelled out with a second of the game for Michael Adeyemi who dived over from short range after Clarke Squires was held up just short range.
Harry Hemmingway opened his account with the last play of the half when he latched onto a long-range pass to scoot in at the corner. Whitfield nudged two out of three over the bar as the half ended with the Outlaws well in command at 26-12.
The coaching staff used the interval to make several changes as Butler, Hemmingway Snr, Gisborne, and Burgin joined the fray to add some fresh legs to the side.
The second stanza started brightly for the Outlaws, indeed in the opening fifteen minutes of the half they dominated field position and territory, setting up camp in the Bulldogs redzone and hammering away at the home line. However a combination of missed chances and some scrambling home defence prevented the Outlaws from adding to their score and their dominance went unrewarded.
As so often happens in rugby league football, their failure to capitalise on their opportunities was duly punished and in their first foray into the Outlaws half the Bulldogs showed them how to score when they moved the ball crisply down the line to score from a well-worked overlap and then ten minutes later they scored again with a short range effort to reduce the deficit to 26-22.
With ten minutes of the game remaining the nerves were well and truly jangling amongst the travelling faithful in a game that appeared to be rapidly slipping away from a stunned Outlaws side.
Despite the wobble the Outlaws stiffened their resolve and slowly wrested back control of the game with some fine defending and some good drives from the forwards, led by man of the match Sam Andrews who had a wow of a game on attack and in defence.
When the final whistle went there were visible signs of relief on the faces of the Outlaws players, coaching staff and supporters, thankful for an opening victory that almost got away from them.
The Outlaws 2025 home campaign starts on Friday with a game under the lights at Lenton Lane against local rivals Sherwood Wolf Hunt (kick-off 8.00pm).