Nuneaton 74 Towcestrians 7

The Nuns started the year as they finished the last with a bonus point win only this time is was an 11 try to 1 win. Bottom of the league Towcestrians were the visitors but the Nuns were ruthless in despatching them scoring 11 tries to win 74-7. There was a hat trick for Elliott Brown, braces for Ben Dawes, Ben Holmes and Ryan Preston with Tom Smitham and Augy Clarke also dotting down. Lucas Brindley added 19 points from the boot.

A couple of changes to the side that last played saw Toby Dearden start at hooker with Augy Clarke on the bench and James Redman and Ben Holmes swapping roles too. In the backline there was a new back 3. Travis Bennett-Allcock and Max Carter were late pull outs through illness and injury and Tak Chawadya was unavailable. Elliott Brown started at full back with Harry Beverley and Oli Mitchell on the wings.

The pitch was in good condition considering the flooding in the week and although it did cut up in some patches it allowed for the ball to be moved around in the winter sun.

The game started with Tows kicking to the Nuns who had the sun at their backs and for nearly the entire first 40 minutes the game was played in the visitors half. From the fist scrum to the visitors the Nuns won a penalty and this dominant forward platform paved the way for what was to come.

The Nuns got the ball rolling on 8 minutes when Brown crossed for his first after some good phase play. Brindley converted making it 7-0 on 8mins.

On 13mins the lead was extended with a Brindley penalty to 10-0 and as the Nuns starting to dust off some Christmas cobwebs they soon got into their stride.

Preston got his first from an interception after some defensive pressure on 20min. Next up was Holmes on 22mins with a pick and go to cross the line. Brown ran in from 60m, beating a number of defenders, for his second on 27mins. Holmes got his second on 31mins after some more phase play crashing over from 5m and Preston got his second on 37mins cutting through the defence from 15m out. Brindley added four conversions to take the half time score to 43-0.

The second half continued in a similar pattern with the Nuns too powerful for the visitors. Tries came on 42, 52, 60 and 65 minutes through Smitham, Brown for his hat trick, Dawes and Clarke. Brindley added two more conversions taking the score to 67-0 after 65 minutes.
To their credit Towcestrians never gave up and continued to battle despite picking up 3 yellow cards in the second half. They did manage to get on the score board on 77mins with a converted try after collecting a kicked ball through but it was the Nuns that final say with Dawes getting his second of the match and Brindley getting a final conversion to round off.

A big win to start 2024 and but with sterner test to come the players will remain focused as a group and continue to work hard moving forward.

Head Coach Huw Thomas’s reflections “Great to start the New Year with a bang today and we were pretty ruthless when we got into our stride. We put them under a lot of pressure and punished them when we created chances. Our scrum once again set the platform and to be able to rotate the whole pack throughout the game kept up that pressure. To pick out one of the tries would have to be when we just changed three forwards on their scrum. To push them off their ball then 3 big carries was a thing of beauty for a rugby purist!! Despite going uncontested late on it was nice to finish on the front foot. We know have to keep looking at our next fixture and hopefully we can train on the pitches for the first time in over a month to help us prepare.”

1 Ben Holmes 2 Toby Dearden 3 Ben Dawes 4 Rudi Reid 5 Tom Aherne 6 James Lloyd 7 Todd Bullions 8 Martin Wood 9 Tom Smitham 10 Lucas Brindley 11 Oli Mitchell 12 Tom Eales 13 Ryan Preston 14 Harry Beverley 15 Elliott Brown; 16 James Redman 17 Nick Walton 18 Augy Clarke