Dudley Kingswinford visited Liberty Way and left with a victory on the weekend in a scrappy defeat for the Nuns. After a run of 4 home wins the Nuns lacked cohesion at times and found clean possession difficult to come by. With a number of changes to the side from the week before it took time to settle into the game. Dudley grabbed five tries and an attacking bonus point whilst the Nuns secured a losing bonus point with the score finishing 27-21 to the visitors. The Nuns tries came from James Redman, Martin Wood and Benji Mitchell with two conversions for Lucas Brindley and one for Travis Bennett-Allcock.

Playing into a stiff breeze the Nuns went behind in the 5th minute. Dudley used the wind to secure a lineout from a 50-22 kick. They set up a maul 5m out and although the ball rolled out their hooker collected and crossed in the corner, 0-5.

On 19 minutes, Dudley were reduced to 14 men when their prop forward was shown a yellow card for a high tackle on Rayabo and this allowed the Nuns to get into the opposition half for the first time. However, momentum was lost with a knock on and Dudley then relieved pressure back down the pitch. They turned the ball over from the kick and then went through a number of phases before scoring in the corner to extend their lead to 0-10 after 23 minutes.

The Nuns spent the next part of the game defending as they struggled to retain any possession and, with the breeze couldn’t relieve pressure. They stuck to the task manfully to their credit but the pressure finally told. In the 30th minute Dudley scored their 3rd try which was unconverted to lead 0-17.

The Nuns picked up a yellow card of their own in the 33rd minute when Darker was binned for a scrum penalty. However, the Nuns didn’t let this affect them too much as they finally started to string some phases of play together and create some pressure of their own.

A penalty was won deep in the Dudley 22m and then sent to touch. A maul was set up but held short then the Nuns went through a number of phases whilst having another penalty advantage. From the next penalty a tap was taken and despite the first charge being halted, Redman picked, shimmed and scuffed over for an instinctive 1-yard dash. Brindley added the conversion to bring the Nuns back into the game at 7-17 on half time.

The second half took a while to get going with both sides testing each other out but neither putting any sustained pressure on each other.

Not until the 60th minute did the score change. It was Dudley who added to their total with a 4th try that was unconverted. They had the Nuns defending their line and finally worked the ball over to take the score to 7-22.

The Nuns could have let their heads drop and the score run away but they did the opposite and soon got themselves back in the game.

From a charged down kick, Wood gathered the ball, then broke a tackle 40m out and then outpaced the covering defence to score with Brindley adding a well struck conversion. The score was now 14-22 after 65 minutes with a glimmer of hope.

Unfortunately, Dudley hit straight back with a 5th try from the kick off clearance kick. They kept the ball alive quickly and crossed in the corner for another unconverted try, 14-27 after 67 minutes.

With 2 minutes to go, the Nuns scored their 3rd converted try. After putting together some phases of play they won a penalty which was sent to touch. From the lineout Wood set off on a run, despatching a couple of would be tacklers before getting an off load to Benji Mitchell to go under the posts for his first 1st team try. Bennett-Allcock added a quick dropped kick conversion to bring the score to 21-27 after 78 minutes.

Was there a chance for a final come back?

Dudley kicked off and the Nuns tried to force play for a last minute come back. Unfortunately they couldn’t retain possession and Dudley put the ball off for the final whistle.

A game where, too many errors didn’t allow the Nuns to put enough pressure on the opposition. Three well taken tries earned a losing bonus point but not the win that was desired.

Huw Thomas’s added after the game “We had to change a number of personnel from last week and even the game that was postponed at the start of the month which hasn’t allowed us to build on last week’s momentum. Our error count was too high but the defensive effort we put in at times was huge given our lack of possession and territory. Finishing with two forwards in the back line for a lot of the second half was tricky but we adapted well to the situation. We must dust ourselves down and go again.”

1 James Redman 2 Louis Addleton 3 Dave Darker 4 James Moreton 5 Tom Aherne 6 Ben Haywood 7 Oli Mitchell 8 Martin Wood 9 Mike Volaikisuva 10 Lucas Brindley 11 Tak Chawadya 12 Ryan Preston 13 Harry Beverley 14 Nemani Rayabo 15 Travis Bennett-Allcock; 16 Jack Iles 17 Benji Mitchell 18 Zeb Gibson