Nottingham 29-14 Bedford (RFU Championship) 17.11.19

Nottingham Rugby are back to winning ways after victory over Bedford at the Bay takes the Green and Whites back up to sixth place in the Greene King IPA Championship.

It was the perfect start for the home side in wet and miserable conditions as Scanlon went over inside of two minutes for his fifteenth Nottingham try following good work from Jack Spittle. O’Leary made no mistake with the conversion and things got better for the Green and Whites just ten minutes later when Spittle this time crossed the line before O’Leary put the follow up kick wide.

With Nottingham 12-0 up a penalty try was then awarded after Fraser Strachan knocked the ball down earning him a yellow card as things went from bad to worse for Bedford.

Matters did improve however for the visitors as Ryan Hutler went over before Lewis Robling added the extras and after an Oliver Curry try was converted by Robling the lead was just five with the scores at 19-14 going into the break.

In a tense start to the second half the next points looked vital as to how the game would swing and after almost thirty minutes of stalemate a penalty was awarded to Nottingham which O’Leary converted from distance.

With Bedford needing two scores the last ten minutes were largely about driving the clock down but in the final minute Nottingham were awarded another penalty try (the first time since 2001 they have had more than one in a single game) to wrap it all up.

A much needed win for Nottingham bouncing back after three straight defeats as they face a three week break from league action with attention drawing to the Championship Cup.

Next up in the cup is Cornish Pirates on the 1^st December whilst the next league game for Nottingham is the live TV match against Coventry on the 21^st December which will be shown on SKY.

Starting Team: Sean Scanlon, Jack Spittle, Joe Thomas, Luke Peters, Ben Foley, Shane O’Leary, Alex Dolly, Aniseko Sio, Luke Cole, Oisin Heffernan, Llewelyn Jones, Danny Qualter, James Connolly, Will Owen, Josh Poullet.

Replacements: Jake Farnworth, Jamie Jack, Ben Betts, Cameron Jordan, Tui Uru, Murray McConnell, Johnny McPhillips, Harry Strong.

*Main image @champrugby the official rugby ball of the RFU Championship.