Nottingham Outlaws returned to winning ways with a hard earned 26-8 victory over Leamington Royals at Lenton Lane on Saturday. The win keeps them in touch with the top two places in what looks like being a tight race to the finish for an end of season play-off spot.
The Outlaws went into the game with a number of regular faces missing, resulting in a number of positional changes from the team that lost to Telford last time out along with two debutants in the shape of George Sissons and Benn Smith.
The match kicked off in sweltering conditions with the pitch side thermometer registering 31C and it was Leamington who held the upper hand in the opening exchanges, almost scoring in their opening set but some good Outlaws defence managed to keep them out.
Further Leamington raids kept the Outlaws on the back foot and the pressure intensified when star wingman Michael Adeyemi went off injured with a painful shoulder injury that ended his involvement in the match with only five minutes played.
After twenty minutes of scrappy play both sides had struggled to complete their sets with several intermittent showers making handling difficult. However, the match changed dramatically when captain Coryn Ward latches on to a quick play the ball to shoot through the defensive line and he managed to hold off the Royals full back to open the scoring as the Outlaws led 4-0.
The Ward try seemed to settle the home side and they began to ask more questions of the Royals defence with James Hood offloading in the tackle to Harry Hemmingway to open his account and two minutes later Jimmy Goodwin marked his first outing of the season with a well taken try.
The third Outlaws try in a whirlwind ten minute spell saw James Chubb collect and open his scoring account for the club with a well taken effort. Ashby added the extras as the first half ended with the Outlaws in control at 18-0
The second stanza started brightly for the Outlaws with a sixty yard break by Coryn Ward almost yielding a try but on the very next play Jimmy Goodwin collected the ball and ran over the top of his opposite number to keep the scoreboard ticking over at 22-0.
Again the rain came down and the greasy ball meant both sides dropped the ball on a regular basis as the match entered into a scrappy phase, brightened only once by a well taken solo effort by Haz Ashby who showed great footwork to dance over the line for a try to stretch the lead to 26-0.
The final stages belonged to Leamington who to their credit never threw in the towel and they bagged two late efforts to close out the scoring at 28-6 in the Outlaws favour.
There were a number of players in the mix for the man of the match award but it was debutant George Sissons who took the medal with a great defensive display that cut down a number of Leamington attacks.