Peterborough 19 Nuns 18

The Nuns winning run came to a heart breaking end on Saturday with a 19-18 defeat to Peterborough. They had a conversion charged down with the last kick of the game which could have seen them take the win 20-19 having battled back from 19-13 down with just 3 minutes left of the game to score their third try. George Wallis, Martin Wood and Ben Dawes were the try scorers with Lucas Brindley adding a penalty.

For the first time this season the Nuns named an unchanged starting team. There was just one change on the bench with Stewart Davies returning from injury for Fin Powell.

On a wet day the Nuns missed with their first chance to score on 7 minutes when a Brindley penalty was pushed wide. The Nuns were showing dominance up front but both teams struggled to maintain clean possession with a very slippery surface effecting footing and handling skills.

As the Nuns kept up some pressure on the home side they kept them pinned in their 40m but a couple of in accuracies in play let the hosts off from close in pressure.

The Nuns did take the lead on 19 minutes when a penalty kick was put into the corner. The lineout was secured and a powerful maul set in motion. George Wallis emerged with the ball to claim the try with Brindley just missing the conversion. 0-5 to the Nuns.

Peterborough came back into the game and after a period of pressure, unable to cross the try line they chose to kick a penalty from in front of the posts. 3-5 after 27 minutes.

The final score of the first half came to the hosts as they added another penalty to their tally to take the lead 6-5 with the last kick of the half. Plenty to play for going into the second half.

Peterborough came out with a fast start and after recycling the ball and moving it from one side of the pitch to the other their full back cut a line in and crashed over for their first try. With the conversion added the lead was stretched to 13-5 after 43 minutes.

The Nuns came back into the game and after a 20m line out catch and drive was collapsed illegally, the Peterborough homer was yellow carded. From a set scrum the Nuns pushed the hosts back but the referee adjudged the ball to be short but awarded another scrum. This time, with the hosts again retreating, Martin Wood picked and crossed for his first try since returning in October. The conversion was missed but the score brought back to 13-10 after 55 minutes.

The Nuns drew the scores level on 62 minutes through a successful Brindley penalty from in front of the posts. The Nuns put together some good front foot ball and after a passage of play from one 22m to the other won a ruck penalty which brought the score to 13 all.
The hosts started to create their own pressure now and after missing a shot at goal on 66 minutes from a penalty they retook the lead on 69 minutes. Having been awarded a penalty for offside, which also saw Martin Wood collect a yellow card, the successful kick took the score to 16-13.

Their lead was extended further on 77minutes when a breakdown penalty was converted into 3 points taking the lead to 19-13.

From the kick off the home team kicked back and the Nuns came on the attack. A penalty was awarded for a high tackle and the ball kicked to touch. From a lineout on the 22m the ball was won and then came the forwards assault. After countless tight phases and patience, Ben Dawes crossed the line for the try to bring the score to 19-18. Brindley had the chance to convert to take the win but unfortunately his conversion was charged down and the score line stayed the same at the whistle.

Head coach Huw Thomas thoughts “I’m gutted for the lads as they put in a huge amount of effort to win this game and to score 3 tries to 1 and not win hurts. We need to adjust just a couple of small items and that win would have been there for us. I was also disappointed that we weren’t rewarded at times for our scrum dominance. It’s an issue I raised post game and will look into it this week as the forwards put a huge amount of effort into this. We must dust ourselves down though and come back again with even more determination next week”

1 James Redman 2 Augy Clarke 3 Ben Dawes 4 Nick Walton 5 Tom Aherne 6 George Wallis 7 Todd Bullions 8 Martin Wood 9 Tom Smitham 10 Max Carter 11 Travis Bennett-Allcock 12 Tom Eales 13 Ryan Preston 14 Takudzwa Chawadya 15 Lucas Brindley; 16 Ben Holmes 17 James Lloyd 18 Stewart Davies