Nottingham Outlaws secured a place in the Midlands Premier division Play-Off Final with an emphatic 42-0 demolition of Coventry Bears at Lenton Lane on Saturday. The win sees Outlaws face-off against an unbeaten Telford Raiders outfit at Leamington RFC in two weeks time.
Any thoughts that this last league fixture might be a formality soon disappeared when Coventry almost scored from their first meaningful attack only for a great try saving tackle from Josh Burgin managing to hold up the attacker over the line.
After 15 minutes without a score it was the Outlaws that drew first blood when captain Coryn Ward latched onto a short ball at pace to open up the Outlaws scoring account with a well taken effort, which Whitfield converted to make it 6-0.
Again Coventry should have scored but failed to pick up the ball from a neat grubber and they were soon made to pay for their profligacy when James Hood powered over from the very next play with an unstoppable surge to the line. Whitfield again slotted over the extras to make it 12-0 to the Outlaws at the break.
After a nervy first half showing the Outlaws started the second stanza with a much more direct approach, taking route one with the forwards. And immediately this change in tactic began to payoff against a rapidly tiring Coventry outfit.
Indeed the half was only five minutes old when Clarke Squires scored with a great solo effort as the powerful halfback crashed his way through some flailing defence and then five minutes later Gaz Whitfield side-stepped his way through the Bears defence and fed Jacob Butler with a short pass and the twinkle-toed second rower sauntered through a gap to stretch the lead to 20-0.
With the Outlaws upping the pace the Bears simply ran out of steam and with their defence struggling they began to leak points at an alarming rate.
Next up captain Coryn Ward took another short ball to double his tally for the game and in the very next set, big Sam Bradley latched onto the ball on the twenty metre line and simply drove his way through the heart of the Bears defence, carrying three defenders over the line with him for a superb solo effort to make it 32-0 with Whitfield converting from bang in front.
There was no respite to be found anywhere for the Bears and they succumbed to two more Outlaws trys as James Chubb scored an excellent try with a run down the right wing before James Hood notched another powerful effort to complete a fine brace on the day and wrap up the scoring at 42-0 in the Outlaws favour.
After the game the player of the match award committee came up with their choice after some tough deliberation but there was no arguments when young second rower Jacob Butler took the awards after a superb showing on attack and defence.
As the players celebrated their win news filtered through that Sherwood had lost at Telford which meant the Outlaws were through to the final and will once again play Telford Raiders in a repeat of last year’s showpiece in two week’s time.