The Nuns picked up their first win of the season when they scored five tries and 33 points to Derby’s 13 on the weekend, securing a third bonus point of the season too. Points came from Joe Wilson with a try and 4 conversions, Travis Bennett-Allcock scored two tries and one a piece for Ryan Preston and Harry Beverley. There were also 1st team debuts for Dave Darker and Josh Wright plus first run outs of the season for Charlie Smith, Arron Skyrme and Mike Volaikisuva.

Just before kick off the autumn monsoon arrived and what was a fine day turned into difficult handling afternoon. The Nuns received the kick off with a slight breeze at their backs and Wilson used this to send the ball back down the field with interest.

After some early pressure the Nuns had a scrum on the Derby 22m line, from the base the ball was moved along the backline allowing Bennett-Allcock to cross in the corner for the first points. Wilson’s conversion missed leaving the score 5-0 after 4 minutes.

The next score came in the 13th minute. After more pressure from the Nuns winning them some penalties and with the scrum on the front foot, from 5m out Wilson fed Beverley to dot down and then with the conversion stretch the lead to 12-0.

In the 24th minute the Nuns received a yellow card for Wood but from the resultant penalty, the Derby kicker pushed his attempt wide.
The visitors then had a sustained period of pressure which eventually led to a try in the corner which was well converted taking the score to 12-7 on 31 minutes. The scored remained the same up until half time.

The Nuns started the second half with a bang. From the kick off, after a couple of aerial shot returns the Nuns won a penalty. The ball was sent to the corner from which a line out maul was set up. After a couple of recycled phases, Preston picked a line and twisted through his man to score with Wilson upgrading to take the lead to 19-7 after 42 minutes.

On 48 minutes, after a small bout of pushing and shoving, the referee sent Addleton and a Derby sub to the sin bin to cool off.

The game went back and forward for a period with the Nuns dominating set scrums but with a hooker in the sin-bin struggling to win their line out ball. Beverley then fell foul of the referee and picked up a third yellow card of the game for the Nuns on 58 minutes. Derby chose to kick for goal, which was successful and brought the score to 19-10.

This gave the visitors a renewed vigor about what they could achieve and they closed the gap further in the 63rd minute with a second penalty to put the score at 19-13.

The Nuns cancelled this out though with a fine team try. From a scrum in their own 22m the ball was moved wide to Bennett-Allcock who set off down the wing beating a number of defenders up to the Derby 10m. Kirby then carried the ball forward and offloaded to Aherne who got pulled down 5m from the line and then a couple of rucks later, Wilson sent a cross field kick back to Bennett-Allcock who stepped inside his man to score his second. Wilson then added the conversion to take the score to 26-13 in the minute.

On 70 minutes the Derby a player picked up his second yellow card which earned him a red card.

The Nuns finished the game off with a fifth try in the 74th minute. With Derby trying to run the ball from near their own try line Wilson picked out their pass and strolled under the posts before converting his own try to leave the final score 33-13 and a bonus point win.

Head Coach Huw Thomas added after the game “Really happy to get our first win of the season as well as another try bonus point. It was very tricky weather conditions at times but the lads battled for 80 minutes and had to with us playing 30 minutes with 14 men. We are working hard on our discipline and have to translate that on to the pitch. We move on to another tough game away to Dudley next week but have something positive to build on.”

Next up, the 1st team travel to Dudley Kingswinford and the Saxons host Old Salts in league games.

1 James Redman 2 Louis Addleton 3 Ben Dawes 4 Ben Haywood 5 Tom Aherne 6 James Lloyd 7 Rudi Reid 8 Martin Wood 9 Ben Kirby 10 Joe Wilson 11 Travis Bennett-Allcock 12 Ryan Preston 13 Harry Beverley 14 Charlie Smith 15 Josh Wright; 16 Dave Darker 17 Arron Skyrme 18 Mike Volaikisuva