Nottingham Outlaws lost their opening home fixture of their 2026 campaign when they fell to a disappointing defeat to last year’s champions, Telford Raiders. The match followed a similar pattern to the previous game, with the Outlaws performing well in the first half to lead 12-6 at the break but a dismal second half performance saw them well beaten as they succumbed to an 18-34 home defeat.
The Outlaws started the match strongly, spending most of the opening quarter in and around the Raiders forty metre zone thanks to some good drives from the forwards, with Captain Coryn Ward and debutant Uchenna Okereke in particular threatening the visitors line but they lacked the cutting edge to break down the Telford defence.
After nearly thirty minutes of play it looked like the Outlaws dominance would go unrewarded but they finally broke the deadlock when Coryn Ward offloaded to half back Jacob Rigby who scooted through a gap to open up the scoring and the young gun subsequently added the extras to make it 6-0 to the Outlaws.
Unfortunately the lead didn’t last too long with the Outlaws failing to get up off their defensive line as the Raiders crashed over from ten metres out to level the score at 6-6.
With the clock ticking down the Outlaws just had enough time to launch one last attack and it was Coryn Ward that once again used his pace and footwork to open up a gap and put the Outlaws back in the lead with Rigby adding the conversion from bang in front to close out the first stanza with the Outlaws 12-6 ahead.
The halftime team talk from coach Joe Shepherd focussed on the need for set completion and defensive line speed but unfortunately his sage words went unheeded by his charges.
Indeed the Outlaws delivered something of a horror show for the home crowd at the start to the second half!
The problems started with some weak tackling allowing Telford to march down the middle and score under the posts in the first set of the half followed by two more weak defensive efforts that saw Telford race into a 28-12 lead with the second half only twelve minutes old!
The quick-fire Telford trys effectively changed the course of the game and as the Outlaws players head dropped, the Telford players began to play with much more confidence, spreading the ball wide on every occasion to threaten the Outlaws time and again.
Despite being under the cosh the Outlaws at least managed to stem the flow and they reduced the deficit when Jacob Rigby grabbed his second try of the match to reduce the deficit to 28-18 with the successful conversion. However any chance of an Outlaws comeback were soon extinguished as Telford moved the ball wide again and they closed out the game with a well taken try to make the final score 18-34 in the visitors favour.
Despite the defeat there were some signs of promise with some good performances from some of the young players such as Luke Grocock and Izaac Oxford who both had strong performances and a well-deserved man of the match performance from Uchenna Okereke who had an excellent eighty minutes on what was his first team debut.
Next weekend the Outlaws have another home game when they host Aston Warriors who will be visiting Lenton Lane for the first time in what is already looking like a must-win game for the Outlaws!