After the success of the women, the University of Nottingham men’s rugby union team hoped to continue with success of their own. However, facing a well-drilled Trent, Uni of fell 28-14.
The game got off to a penalty filled start, with both teams getting called on numerous occasions and an attempt at 3 points by Trent going wide. But after some great ball-in-hand work from the boys in Green and Gold, Sam Isaacs was able to go over the line, drawing the first blood of the match.
Fly-half Tom Walsh slotted the conversion over neatly taking the score to 7-0 to Uni of and sending the Uni of crowd wild.
Nottingham were the forced to work hard in defence, putting in a number of hard hitting tackles to stop the force of Trent. A couple of breaks from Trent seemed to suggest a score was coming soon, but Uni of soon recovered them, preventing the men in pink from crossing the line.
After some play with no points put on the board, Uni of’s lack of discipline got the better of them with an offside resulting in a sin-binning. Trent went for posts, and got their first points of the match closing the gap down to 7-3.
The second half got off to a bad start for Uni when a penalty in front of the sticks moved Trent closer to Uni, closing the gap to only 1 point making it 7-6 to Uni.
Some great open play from Uni opened the game up and showed the danger of the Nottingham boys when they had space to play with.
However, soon with some good play of their own, Trent found themselves with a scrum in Uni’s 22, and with a wide pass and well placed kick through the defence, Trent went over the line for their first try of the game. This was followed by the first of many missed conversions by the Trent kicker taking the score to 7-11.
Shortly after, a touchline scuffle broke out seeing almost all of both the teams entangled and resulting in a yellow card for each team, but it was great entertainment for the crowd.
Feeling the pressure in the dying minutes of the match, some magic play from Uni saw them hit back immediately with Rob Eades giving some hope to the Uni boys with a try
Neither side being truly disadvantaged by the sin-binning, Trent opened up the score line even further getting over the line for their second try, but again, no conversion.
With the score at 7-16 and everything still to play for, the Uni boys again displayed the prowess of their open play in the backs, but failed to turn it into a score. Not willing to be pushed around, Trent soon ran over for another try, taking it up to 7-23 with the conversion finally going over.
Feeling the pressure in the dying minutes of the match, some magic play from Uni saw them hit back immediately with Rob Eades giving some hope to the Uni boys with a try. A quick drop conversion from Sam Isaacs was utilised as the boys attempted to leave more time to close the score line.
But it was not meant to be as Trent responded shortly with a final try, making the score 14-28 and a loss for the UNRUC boys.
Lucy Ryall
Follow live Varsity updates on Twitter with @ImpactVarsity15
Images: dgtl Concepts photographer Jack Gunter
