NOTTINGHAM Rugby have named an unchanged line-up for
tomorrow's meeting with Moseley.
UNCHANGED: More of
the same is expected of Nottingham after beating Leeds last
week.
Green and Whites backs coach Ben Johnston said the hoodoo gurus
who earned Nottingham its first opening day win since 2005 had done
everything to retain the faith put in them.
"It was a good collective performance to overcome Leeds the way
we did," Johnston said.
"The team deserves to be rewarded for this with the chance to go
again this weekend."
In this case, there was no inclination to tinker with a winning
formula after Nottingham stormed back from a 17 point deficit to
overcome Leeds Carnegie 34-29 at Meadow Lane.
From the seasoned half-back combination of Sean Romans and James
Arlidge, to Dan Montagu's return to Meadow Lane as a lock, Alex
Shaw's man-of-the-match showing at No. 8 and the powerful two-try
performance by Andrew Savage, there were plenty of highlights to
back-up this week's selection.
And yet, more is still expected of the outfit.
"We started brilliantly, we went three points up in the first
few minutes and our attack looked to be going really well,"
Johnston said.
"Then we seemed to fall away, our accuracy wasn't there, we
missed a line-out, we gave away silly penalties, so we have spoken
a lot about discipline and how that needs to improve against
Moseley."
The bonus point victory may have ensured the East Midlands
outfit collected five competition points, but it's the way the team
took its first confident step of 2012/13 that made it a showing to
relish.
"To win close games helps build character, and if you can sneak
a few close wins like that it becomes a habit and the team is
better for it," Johnston said.
And that's precisely the attitude that Nottingham is approaching
Moseley with on Saturday.
Johnston said it would be foolish to be sucked into a false
sense of security by pausing too long on Moseley's heavy 50-6
opening day loss to Bedford.
It's what the score-line fails to highlight which has been the
focus of Nottingham's attention this week.
"Going through the tape of their loss its plain to see that they
created chances and that scoreline could have been very different,"
Johnston said.
"If we underestimate them, they are capable of putting points on
us. We watched them against Northampton and they are active with
the ball, are hungry to play and always look for the offload.
"It's going to be a case of us trying to shut them down and
making sure we give them as little space as possible to play."
Nottingham Rugby v Moseley at Billesley Common,
September 8 (3pm kick-off): 1 Matt Parr 2 Joe Duffey 3
Michael Holford 4 Dan Montagu 5 Nic Rouse 6 Rupert Cooper 7 Brent
Wilson 8 Alex Shaw 9 Sean Romans 10 James Arlidge 11 Rhys Crane 12
Joe Munro 13 Tim Streather 14 Ryan Hough 15 Andrew Savage.
Replacement from:16 Jimmy Stevens 17 Ryan Bower
18 Joe Quinn 19 Tom Calladine 20 Finlay Barnham 21 Rory Lynn 22 Joe
Cobden.