Nottingham Casuals vs. Kesteven (08/04/2017)

Saturday 8th April - Midlands League 2 East North

Kesteven travelled to Beeston knowing that only a bonus point victory would keep them from dropping down into Midlands 3. It was a glorious day and paved the way for some open and expansive rugby, something Kesteven had been trying to achieve all season.

The game started at a frenetic pace with Casuals dominating the opening stages. With mounting pressure on the Kesteven try line casuals were awarded a penalty which they opted to kick at goal. This was successful and gave them a slender 3-0 lead.

Kesteven came in to the game from the restart with Tuner and Justin Dingley making significant breaks, but the final pass on both occasions did not match the initial break and possession was handed back to Casuals. From this point on play was dominated by the home side. Utlising a strong back row Casuals brought play into the Kesteven 22 and pushed the ball wide where they were able to force an overlap score the games first try.

This try was then compounded by a further two scores, Casuals capitalising on sloppy defending. Luckily the 3rd try went unconverted. 22-0 at Half Time.

K’s were in need of 4 tries to secure a bonus point so the deficit at half time was fairly irrelevant. However, things did not improve in the second half, almost immediately from the restart Casuals scored a further try under the posts to make the score 29-0. It was clear the game was running away from Kesteven and naturally players began trying to force the issue and the error count began to go up and up. As a result Casuals were able to utilise their excellent back 3 contingent as the game became fractured and were able to score a further 3 unconverted quick fire tries taking the score to 44-0.

Kesteven did have one moment of magic, where a Turner break was offloaded to Wood who fed Whittaker out wide and he was able to squeeze over in the corner. 44-5.

However, Casuals were able to rightly have the final word with a score in the dying second which was converted. 51-5.

It was a very disappointing afternoon for the Black Army, the performance well short of the normal standard. As mentioned this means that Kesteven will drop down in to Midlands 3 next season, but will hope to bounce straight back up and learn from the mistakes this made year.