On Nathan Tweedy’s 50th appearance for Nottingham, he and his teammates banished the memory of last week’s disappointing defeat with a rampant display of running rugby that delivered seven tries by six different scorers to do the double over Doncaster Knights for the first time since 2019.
As Tweedy described “In Championship rugby you’ve got to turn up every week and we didn’t turn up last week, so to put in that performance and turn it around is pretty special and shows what sort of a group we have here.”
The opening quarter of the match was an end to end affair with both sides trading tries. After only three minutes Sebastian Ferreira released Jack Stapley with a chicken wing pass. The fullback broke through the line and gave it back to the German international to run in. Matt Arden perfectly split the posts with his conversion.
Doncaster had used the wind at their backs to trouble the Archers a couple of times already and five minutes after going behind they were back in it when Jordan Olowofela outpaced Stapley to a ball that had been kicked in behind to dot down in the corner. Russell Bennett was unable to draw his side level in almost his final contribution as he left the field through injury soon afterwards.
The pendulum swung back towards the home side almost immediately as, despite losing a lineout on their opponents’ five metre line, they were given another chance when Donny were pinged for holding on as they tried to run it clear. Second time lucky as David Williams cut inside to catch a crossfield kick from the back of the next lineout and found the space to take it the final ten metres to the whitewash.
Back came the Knights in the 23rd minute as Telusa Veainu, who was a handful for the Archers all evening, beat several men in green with a delightful mazy run that was stopped just short of the try line. A couple of pick and goes later and visiting captain Ben Murphy squeezed over. Morgan Bunting took over kicking duties and brought his side within two.
Doncaster were starting to look more dangerous as time went on but, with five minutes of the first half remaining, the game witnessed its first scrum, giving the Nottingham forwards an opportunity to assert their dominance. They duly gained a penalty advantage and, despite James Cherry not giving Josh Goodwin the neatest of balls he inventively flicked it through his legs to the back line where Stapley released Ryan Olowofela wide left with a long range grubber and he stepped his twin brother to extend the Archers’ lead.
Having missed a penalty earlier, Bunting made no mistake on the stroke of halftime to make it Nottingham 19-15 Doncaster Knights at the break.
The visitors were much the brighter team in the opening exchanges of the second period and Bunting narrowed the gap to just one point from the tee on 48 minutes. That, however, concluded the Yorkshire outfit’s scoring as it was all Nottingham from there on in.
Five minutes later, Jay Ecclesfield made inroads into the Donny 22 for the first time in the second half, the ball was moved wide to Olowofela and, just when the visitors thought they had stopped him, he flipped the ball to Williams to run in in the corner.
Midway through the half Jack Dickinson unceremoniously dumped Jordan Olowofela into touch within 10 metres of the Knights’ try line. From the lineout the ball was worked across to Kegan Christian-Goss who made it three in three as he dived over by the right-hand post.
Inside the final ten minutes Nottingham were camped inside the Donny 5m line. With the freedom provided by a penalty advantage Arden blasted a kick into the arms of the onrushing Stapley who added the Archers’ sixth try.
And the victory was rounded out with the final play of the game as Toby Venner, who had looked very lively from the moment he replaced Goodwin in the 49th minute, took a quick tap from a penalty on his opponents’ 22, drove forward and put it on a plate for Jacob Wright to top off a fantastic night on Trentside: Nottingham 43-18 Doncaster Knights.
The final word goes to Nathan Tweedy, who has had to wait to make his 50th appearance after a spell out through injury: “It’s been tough being on the sidelines and watching the boys go to work but I have tried to contribute in other ways, and now I’m just grateful to be back out playing. Getting my 50th cap is very special, coming over from New Zealand, it’s a long way but I said in a meeting with lads, this is my home now, they’ve welcomed me and my partner Jemma and it feels very special to be here.”