Nottingham recorded a much needed first win since the end of January to arrest a run of four straight league defeats in fine style, running in nine tries and preventing bottom side Cambridge from registering a single point in the second half. Bath loanee George Timmins, on his first start for the club, described the mentality in the team “You learn from your mistakes in the losses,” said Timmins “We’ve really taken on accountability as players to get what we need to do right and we’ve shown what we can do in this game.”

It was Cambridge who started much the brighter of the two sides, however, pinning Nottingham in their own half in the opening exchanges. Having previously missed a penalty they opted for the corner, with less than five minutes on the clock, after sloppy handling left Jack Stapley exposed in the tackle and he was pinged for not releasing. Ben Brownlie was in the middle of the ensuing maul to touch down.

Nottingham continued to look a little nervy, perhaps carrying the burden of their recent results and, on 12 minutes, Eli Caven extended the visitors’ lead with a penalty in front of the posts.

Five minutes later, with Brownlie in the bin for the Blood and Sand, the Archers got their driving maul going in the corner and it was a hooker at the centre of things again, as Harry Clayton got Nottingham on the scoreboard, with Matt Arden converting.

Nottingham were starting to play with a little more confidence as they managed to turn a Cambridge scrum inside their 22 into one of their own, after they forced a knock-on from the visitors. The ball was worked to the left and lovely fast hands from David Williams set Jack Stapley free to put the Archers ahead for the first time.

Cambridge struck back immediately, however, when a grubber from five metres out allowed Caven to dot down, but he couldn’t convert his own try.

The pendulum then swung straight back Nottingham’s way. The home side had been having a bit of difficulty in the line out but they took one very cleanly 15 metres out. The pass inside found Williams and he worked some typical magic to find a gap and run it in.

After a breathless couple of minutes of broken field rugby Ryan Olowofela was able to break into the Cambridge half and, with just one man left to beat, chose to pass inside to Toby Venner to take it to the line unopposed to claim Nottingham’s bonus point on the half hour mark.

Back came Cambridge five minutes later. It looked like the Archers had turned the ball over in defence but the visitors regained it and worked it wide left for Pete White to score. Caven converted to make it Nottingham 26-22 Cambridge at the break.

Nottingham then made things more comfortable for themselves right from the off in the second period. Arden kicked off, Williams batted it back to the onrushing Ale Loman who offloaded it to Jack Dickinson to score without Cambridge touching the ball. And they still hadn’t touched it other than to kick off when Nottingham scored again, this time Timmins getting his first try for the club. “Obviously I’m happy to get the try and the first start, and get some good minutes under the belt.” said the lock forward “It was great to come out at home and put on a performance like that, and it’s something we can build on now.”

Aside from the two tries, the third quarter of the match was played exclusively in Nottingham’s half. Cambridge didn’t really threaten to score, however, apart from one attempt that a combination of Loman and Timmins held up over the line.

In the 65th minute, with Williams rather harshly yellow carded, Nottingham made their next incursion into Cambridge territory in the form of a breakaway try for Olowofela that was converted from out wide by Arden.

Just over five minutes later a brilliant 50:22 from Arden set up a lineout close to the Cambridge line and Antonio Harris spun off the back of the maul to take Nottingham past the half century of points. And it was the same again on 77 minutes, this time from a penalty, as Harris added his second, and Nottingham’s ninth and final try to make the score Nottingham 61-22 Cambridge.