Match Report: Nottingham 41-26 Coventry Rugby

Coventry left Nottingham with only a try bonus-point after the hosts’ high-tempo, six-try success ended the Blue-and-Whites’ five-match winning sequence in this long-standing Midlands derby.

The visitors trailed 14-7 at the break after Toby Trinder celebrated his 100^th Cov appearance with his third try for the club shortly before the interval.

By then Seb Ferreira and Harry Clayton had already opened the Archers’ account, and Nottingham went on to add third-quarter scores through man-of-the-match Ryan Olowofela and centre Kegan Christian-Gross in response to Jordon Poole’s fourth try of the season.

Thanks to Jimmy Martin’s interception score and Will Biggs’ second five-pointer in as many weeks Cov twice then got within a score in the fourth quarter only for Malalili Satala and David Williams to intervene with the pair of late touchdowns that clinched the spoils.

Nottingham showed their hand early in the encounter by tapping penalties inside their own half and going wide at every opportunity.

A fine break by Koby Veneti created an early opportunity for the hosts only for a good cover tackle to prevent the supporting Matthew Arden from opening the scoring.

Cov’s first opportunity was created by Martin’s hack-and-chase only for the winger to be beaten to the loose ball by the back-tracking Josh Goodwin.

It was therefore Nottingham who claimed the opening score late in the opening quarter when lock Ferreira was left with the simplest of finishes after the visitors failed to secure Arden’s grubber kick on the ground.

The home fly half added a fine conversion and he soon split the uprights for a second time after Harry Clayton applied the finishing touch to a slashing 70-metre Olowofela break.

Cov desperately needed to get on the board before half-time and fittingly it was new centurion Trinder who was driven over for their opening try from a maul that was shunted fully 15 metres.

Liam Richman’s conversion left the hosts with a 14-7 interval advantage but this was down to two points ten minutes after the restart when Poole broke powerfully from close-range and plunged over.

Disaster immediately struck – from a Cov viewpoint – when the always-dangerous Olowofela leaped highest to pluck the restart from the air and race to the visitors’ posts for a try that Arden upgraded.

Nottingham registered a bonus point on the hour mark when they capitalised on a loose clearance to send Kegan Christian-Goss racing to the left corner for a try that Arden again improved.

After Richman’s conversion of Martin’s 70-metre interception score narrowed the gap, the home no.10 tagged on a simple penalty before Biggs was shunted over for Cov’s fourth score of the day.

Now trailing 31-26 with ten minutes remaining and their bench fully deployed Coventry scented opportunity until the Archers powered into the 22 and sent Leicester loanee Satala to the corner for a match-clinching try.

And enough time remained for a cherry to be placed atop the cake when home skipper Williams was left all alone on the right wing to gather a cross-kick and touch down the hosts’ sixth score.

Line-Ups:

Nottingham: Stapley; Williams, Christian-Goss (Johal 77), Parks, Olowofela; Arden (Satala 74), Goodwin (Venner 47); Owen (Sio 49), Clayton (Dickinson 49), Richardson (Loman 49); Ferreira, Shine; Vereti (Green 53), Williams, Cherry

Replacements: Valentine  

Coventry: Robson (Mathews 49); Hutler (Opoku 51), Tiueti, Hitchcock, Martin; Richman, Barton (Ogden 51); Trinder (Warren 60), Poole (Biggs 60), Longwell (Salt 58); Nkwocha (Green 49), Tyas; Ball, Kvesic, Owen (Okeke 53)

Referee: Joe James

Half-Time: Nottingham 14-7 Coventry Rugby

Attendance: 1921

Scorers:

Nottingham:

Tries: Ferreira (17), Clayton (25), Olowofela (53), Christian-Goss (60), Setala (77), Williams (80)

Conversions: Arden (17) (25) (53) (60)

Penalty: Arden (66)

Coventry:

Tries: Trinder (37), Poole (51), Martin (63), Biggs (71)

Conversions: Richman (37) (63) (71)

Penalty: