Nottingham produced a scintillating display of high tempo rugby to put an end to a six game winless run against Coventry, registering six tries in the process. After the Archers scored in the 17th minute, apart from for a brief period either side of half-time, the visitors never really looked like threatening to overturn the deficit, although they did gain a bonus point through scoring four tries of their own.
Craig Hammond’s men were on the front foot from the off and thought they had scored in the opening minute after a Kody Vereti line break had set up a lineout and driving maul but the referee pulled it back for an infringement.
Nottingham were playing fast but a little too loose five minutes later, as a misplaced pass following an attacking scrum on the Coventry 10 metre line allowed the visitors to kick it deep into Archers territory, but Josh Goodwin did well to win the foot race to the ball, and gain the penalty, after the onrushing James Martin went off his feet.
After Coventry were offside just inside their own half, Matthew Arden took a quick tap and kicked the ball into space in the left hand corner. Kegan Christian-Goss pounced on the visiting full back as he attempted to gather, the ball squirmed loose and Sebastian Ferreira dived over to open the scoring. Arden, who wasn’t quite on point with one or two of his touch finders during open play, was nevertheless perfect from the tee and he converted from a difficult angle.
It took until the 35th minute before Cov were able to string any phases together but, by this time, they were already 14 points in arrears after a Ryan Olowofela break from halfway was stopped just short of the line, but the ball was recycled to Sam Williams to go over by the left hand upright.
With the visitors eventually being able to apply some pressure they won a penalty that was kicked to the corner and, after a lengthy maul, their 100 appearance maker, Toby Trinder, was able to touch down. Liam Richman converted to make it Nottingham 14-7 Coventry at the break.
Christian-Goss described the sentiments in the Nottingham dressing room at half-time: “That last 10 minutes in the first half Coventry slowed the game, that’s why they got back into it. We needed to keep the tempo up, outplay them, work them off the park, go at them again.”
That plan didn’t immediately come to fruition as the visitors narrowed the gap to two points 10 minutes into the second period, again from a maul, but this time Jordon Poole peeled away from the back to cross.
Just as the away supporters thought their side were getting back into it they had the stuffing knocked out of them when Arden’s resultant kick-off travelled precisely 10 metres into the arms of the advancing Ryan Olowofela who cut through the static Coventry defence to score under the posts.
Soon afterwards David Williams caught a box kick on the Cov 10 metre line, chipped the ball to himself to create an opening, then the ball was moved rapidly across the back line to set up Christian-Goss to record his first try for the club, much to his delight: “It’s been in the back of my mind so it was nice to get in in the corner, I got a good pass and I just finished it off. It was lovely teamwork.”
Alex Rae’s men were able to get back within five points as they added two tries either side of an Arden penalty. First a rather lackadaisical pass by Vereti was intercepted by winger Martin on the halfway line and with a vacant backfield he was able to cross under the posts unopposed. Then, as the game headed into the final 10 minutes Coventry once again got a maul going from a five metre lineout and Will Biggs delivered the push over try.
Nottingham weren’t done, however, as Malelili Satala had been on the field for one minute on his debut as a replacement for the hobbling Arden, which led to Hammond shuffling the personnel across the back line. His first touch was to collect the ball and dive over in the corner with five minutes remaining.
David Williams then sent the Archers’ fans home with even bigger smiles on their faces as, with the clock in the red, a dominant maul advanced around 15 metres into the Cov 22 and, with a number of defenders committed to slowing the advancing pack, a crossfield kick found the home captain in an acre of space to calmly notch the sixth try to make the final score Nottingham 41-26 Coventry.