Nottingham could only take a losing bonus point from their encounter with Bedford Blues that was neatly summed up by The Archers’ captain and sponsors’ player of the match David Williams “The slippery conditions made it tough tonight. Nottingham have been playing well but fine margins are deciding games.”
Bedford had a strong maul all evening, in evidence right from the off as Nathan Langdon crossed from a lineout drive after only three minutes. Nottingham had their chances to get straight back into the contest, including when James Cherry performed one of his fast becoming trademark line breaks, but a forward pass from Kody Vereti after he had collected the offload on the 22 halted progress.
Jai Johal was making his maiden start for Nottingham after being a late replacement for Matthew Arden. He marked the occasion with just over a quarter of an hour gone as his chip on halfway found Williams who fed the returning Charlie Myall after beating a couple of defenders and the loanee starlet raced to the corner to make the score 5-5.
The visitors were back in the lead moments later, however, after they moved the ball wide from a midfield scrum and Dean Adamson was able to dot down in the corner. With the rest of the half a fairly scrappy affair the score at the break was Nottingham 5-10 Bedford.
As ever, Nottingham were trying to play their brand of free-flowing rugby and often looked dangerous from broken play, but on the hour mark, with The Archers on the offensive, they had a cross-field kick intercepted by The Blues’ Louis James who raced over half the length of the pitch to score.
That was ultimately the decisive score as Nottingham could only salvage a bonus point when replacement prop Jack Dickinson drove over following a Bedford scrum penalty that Gwyn Parks, a late addition to the bench and appearing for the first time since he was injured at Doncaster in September, kicked to the corner.
While it was disappointing to lose on the night Williams concluded “We are now looking forward, targeting two bonus point wins, next week away at Cambridge then here at The Bay against Chinnor on Friday 13 December.”