Notts deny Birmingham top spot
Jan 27 2012 |
Written by
James Dolton
Birmingham men’s rugby firsts were left to rue a missed opportunity after a narrow home loss to local rivals Nottingham.
Birmingham sat in second in the BUCS Premier North B division and could have topped the league with a victory, but were instead dealt a frustrating 16-18 defeat. Their opponents came to the Bournbrook pitch off the back of a victory over Loughborough 2nds on Saturday 21st January, but showed no early signs of tiredness. Indeed they struck the first blow barely thirty seconds after kick off when hooker Ben Garrett bundled over to score on the left wing a few phases after a lost kick off. Notts centre and kicker Hall missed a difficult conversion attempt, leaving the early score at 0-5.
The home team were quick to respond however, second row Sam Markey winning a penalty after excessive Nottingham holding almost immediately from the restart. Flanker Dan Wood powered this over from 30 yards out, adding three to Birmingham’s total. This seemed to instil a new confidence on the team, who began to play some excellent rugby. Full-back Matt Smith made a superb line break left, whilst beautiful fast hands from the whole back line saw winger Ben Farr almost put down on the right touchline. This pressure was made clear when the visitors rushed offside in midfield, conceding a penalty that Wood duly converted from 15 yards to put Brum in front.
Birmingham were dominating this period of the first half: the pack won the first four scrums in a row, including two against the head, and Wood slotted another penalty from the edge of the 22 to consolidate the lead. However, the freezing temperature and swirling winds made it hard to build a platform: a number of kicks were blown straight into touch whilst several half-breaks were thwarted by knock-ons. To further this frustration, five minutes from half-time Nottingham gained a close lineout from a sliced kick. Flanker Williams collected the ball off the top and popped it to scrum half Humphreys, who wriggled through the middle of the Birmingham forwards to score. Hall again missed his conversion with a poor effort, but after a Birmingham offload went astray in midfield straight from the kick-off Hall made amends, finally managing to put between the posts. The referee therefore blew for half-time with the score at 9-13.
During half time the rain began to throw down with renewed vigour, and this shaped the nature of the second half, a scrappy affair filled with knock-ons and turnovers. Nottingham came close in the 50th minute with continuous pressure through the right side, but a huge tackle from Brum fly-half Peter Gizauskas forced a turnover. Birmingham had a huge chance 15 minutes later when a mazy run from left winger Robin Montgomery reached the opposition five-metre line but Birmingham again let the ball slip away. Eventually, it was Nottingham who broke the deadlock, when Smith was judged to have kicked straight into touch from just outside his 22. Nottingham set up a maul from the resulting line out and Number 8 and captain Cooper barged over to make the score 9-18 with just ten minutes to play. Birmingham dominated these final minutes, spending almost all of them camped on the Nottingham five metre line.
With ten to go, Nottingham saw Cooper sent to the sin bin for attempting to impede the advance of the Birmingham scrum, and two scrums later a penalty try was awarded as Nottingham’s pack crumbled. Wood hurriedly buried the extras but there was barely a minute to play. Birmingham captured the ball from the restart and managed into advance the Nottingham half, yet another knock-on saw the referee blow the final whistle, leaving the Birmingham XV dejected at losing a game that for long periods they had controlled and damaging their hopes of topping the league with just five games left to make up the deficit.
Shortlink: http://redbrick.me/35379
Written by
James Dolton
on Jan 27 2012. Filed under Key Stories, Sports, University Match Reports.
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