Match Report: Nottingham 39 v 0 1st XV, 14/04/23

An injury depleted 1st XV travelled to The Lady Bay to face Nottingham under the Friday Night Lights.
The teams had met 6 weeks ago on The Olney Field and won 36-24 but Head Coach Paul Turner warned his squad that The Archers would be a big threat at home, especially with their potent back 3.
Turner was forced to make eight changes to the starting XV that faced Coventry last Saturday and that became ten by kick-off as first Tom Bacon became unwell on the day to be replaced by young Fin Parker for his second start, and then George Worth pulled out in the warm up – Charlie Hudson starting at outside centre.
Academy Graduate Lui Natui was promoted to the bench for his 1st XV team debut.
An afternoon of rain that worsened throughout the game created difficulty for both sides and the opening exchanges were dominated by the kicking game with neither team wanting to gift territory and the wet conditions caused a multitude of handling errors!
Both sides had opportunities to open the scoring – first Nottingham wing Williams putting a kick over the As defence to chase himself but it went dead in the wind, before A’s hooker Samson Adejimi broke off the maul with a powerful run minutes later but was stopped on the line!
Our hosts broke the deadlock on the half hour.  After a short side burst scrum half Stronge giving quick ball to Williams running an arched line and he went through a slipping defence to score left of posts!
Nottingham doubled their advantage just before half time. A long kick clearance from under his posts by Bragman  was fielded by Archers full back Olowofela  who chipped the advancing defence, regathered and ran away to dive over wide left.
14-0 at half time a little harsh on the Mob after a valiant first half performance.
Ampthill came out firing in the second half and only stout Nottingham defence in the gold zone prevented several try scoring opportunities – Samson Adejimi, Joe Sproston and the impressive Fyn Brown taking turns to batter the host defence only to be denied.
A Nottingham penalty on 60 minutes extended their lead to 17-0 before the hosts scored their third try with 15 to play, Williams collecting off the ruck and bursting through the visiting defence for his second try of the night. Man of the Match Olowofela got his second five minutes later using his pace to score ignoring the overlap before Nottingham  forwards scored twice in the last five minutes against a young tiring Mob side!
Head Coach Paul Turner following the game “I was proud of our effort in the first half, we just lacked that cutting edge to convert our opportunities. It could easily have been 7-7 at half time and to go in 14-0 was tough on the boys”. 
“We started the second half well but again some of our decision making has let us down. Our kicking game let us down at times and we need a little more patience when we have scoring opportunities.  The longer the game went on chasing the game from deep in those conditions was never going to work.”  
“Fair play to Nottingham, on their day they’re a good side and played the conditions better than us and were far more clinical with their opportunities” 
“We’re at bare bones at the moment – we’re missing a lot of senior players, losing Tom and George before the game made a difference as they’ve both been in great form recently, and hopefully we’ll have a few of them back when we face Blues at home next Saturday”. 
Our final home game is next Saturday, 22nd April 3pm kick-off against Bedford Blues. Over 50% of tickets are already sold. There will be no tickets available at the game. Please go to https://www.ampthillrufc.com/match-tickets/ for tickets. Discount codes have been sent to Members and Gold/Life Members by email.
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