Nuneaton 35 Wellingborough 0

It was a 5-star showing for the Nuns, as they stretched a run of wins to nine bonus points, with a five try win over Wellingborough. Try scorers where Tom Smitham with two, Tom Aherne, Joe Wilson and Ben Kirby, Lucas Brindley was successful with all 5 conversions. The Nuns were also able to pick up their first clean sheet of the season leaving the score 35-0.

The afternoon started with a 2 minute silence in memory of U18 player Joshua Jempson who passed away Friday after a serious car crash a week earlier.

Playing with the wind at their backs the Nuns controlled the majority of the first half but would have liked to have more points on the board by the time the whistle went for half time.

They got the ball rolling on just 5 minutes when Smitham crossed for his and the teams first try. Having won a penalty on half way, the ball was kicked into the visitors 22m. From the line out Smitham, then Aherne and finally Dawes carried the ball to within a meter of the goal line for Smitham to squeeze over under the posts leaving Brindley with an easy conversion, 7-0.

The next score came on 22 minutes. From a penalty deep in to Wellingborough territory a scrum was called with the Nuns dominant in this area. Number 8 Reid picked and attacked the posts and after he was felled, Aherne came rumbling around the ruck to collect a popped ball and crash over the line with Brindley adding another conversion, 14-0.

The last points of the half came on 30 minutes. With another sustained period of pressure in the visitors 22m, Smitham popped an inside ball to Wilson to squeeze through for the try that, with the conversion, took the score to 21-0.

The Nuns extended their lead on 48 minutes when Smitham picked up his second try in an almost carbon copy effort. Wood carried the ball forward, then Walton did the same and from Dawes’s pick and go to within a metre of the line Smitham shimmied and round the defender to cross under the posts again to secure the bonus point and take the score to 28-0.

The last points of the game came on the final whistle. Having recycled the ball whilst in the 22m Kirby collected a loose pass, cut in and accelerated through a few tackles from just 5m out to score on his return to the 1st team after 2 years out with a shoulder injury. Brindley had the final kick act of the game adding the extras to leave the scorer 35-0.

This was a game the Nuns deserved to win but at times lacked some of the control that previous performances have had. The team can also take heart from keeping their opponents point loss in the game through some determined defence especially having gone two periods of play reduced to 14 men. Another positive was seeing Ben Kirby come back into the squad after long injury lay off.

Head Coach Huw Thomas added “The lads are a little disappointed that we didn’t put a more complete performance together which shows the standards we have set of late. However, we keep our run of bonus point wins going which has been a super effort recently. We made a couple of changes to the squad with a couple of lads unavailable but we are in a strong position to have lads come back in that keep the pressure on in the league. ”

1 James Redman 2 Toby Dearden 3 Ben Dawes 4 Nick Walton 5 Tom Aherne 6 George Wallis 7 Todd Bullions 8 Rudi Reid 9 Tom Smitham 10 Lucas Brindley 11 Harry Beverley 12 Tom Eales 13 Ryan Preston 14 Travis Bennett-Allcock 15 Joe Wilson; 16 James Redman 17 Martin Wood 18 Ben Kirby