Nottingham Rugby made a solid start to their
pre-season preparations with a dogged display against Aviva
Premiership giants London Irish.
The Green and Whites went down 13-0 against the Exiles but the
level of performance will have been encouraging for new Head Coach
Martin Haag as he primes his squad for the rigours of the
Championship season.
Topsy Ojo opened the scoring for Irish with a trademark try. The
returning Shane Geraghty was directing play and throwing some
superb passes. After the forwards had made good yards into the
Nottingham 22, Geraghty saw the opportunity and sent the ball wide.
The threatening Irish runners were too much for the visitors to
handle and Ojo came off his wing and went straight through the
space created to score in the corner.
Irish continued to play with ball in hand and came away with
their second try on 15 minutes. Chris Hala'ufia and Matt Garvey
carried well in the build up before the ball was spun wide to Conor
Gaston. The Irishman showed good feet and power to beat two
defenders and put Irish on the front foot. Irish continued to go
through the phases, ate up the yards and were rewarded with a try
in the corner, the scorer Ofisa Treviranus. Irish finished the
quarter 10-0.
The second quarter saw a superb defensive effort from both
teams. Irish and Nottingham both failed to put themselves in the
right areas to score points.
After the break the pattern continued, with defence certainly
coming out on top.
Nottingham continue their pre-season campaign with matches
against Loughborough and Leicester Tigers and will be keen to build
on what appears a solid foundation.
Nottingham Rugby's Chief Executive, Simon Beatham said, "I was
really pleased with the effort and commitment shown on Friday
night. We have a much tighter squad this season and once we got
over their first ten minutes where we gave the opposition too much
respect, we realised we could compete on equal terms.
"It was great to see the younger lads come through and perform
and it was a good first step. What was most pleasing was the
recognition from all the players and coaches of how much more hard
work is required to get the results we are looking for. That first
game against Leeds is bubbling up nicely."
Nottingham team
1 Parr 2 Wright 3 Holford 4 Quinn 5 Rouse 6 Eggleshaw 7 Wilson 8
Shaw 9 Barnham 10 Lynn 11 Crane 12 Munro 13 Streather 14 Hough 15
Stokes
Replacements: Shields, Cooper, Romans, Todd, Montagu, Joe
Cobden, Jack Cobden, Andy Savage, Calladine, Priest, Boggis,
Bradford.