Nottingham were made to rue several missed kicks as, despite outscoring their opponents by six tries to five and having two penalty attempts to win it in the last two minutes, Cornish Pirates came back from a 13 point half-time deficit to defeat the Archers 35-34.
Craig Hammond’s men continued where they had left off against Hartpury the week before as they put on a display of incisive rugby to secure a bonus point by scoring five tries inside the opening half an hour. Four of them went unconverted, however, giving a lifeline, albeit seemingly slim at the time, to the home side.
Nottingham raced into a ten point lead as, first, Will Yarnell placed a perfectly weighted grubber down the left hand side which Harry Graham outpaced all-comers to dot down, then David Williams did his trademark finding of a gap to break open the Cornish defence.
Matt Pritchard reduced the arrears for the hosts from a maul before Ryan Olowofela, on his last appearance for the Archers ahead of his move to Doncaster Knights, sealed his place as the club’s top try scorer for the season with a scintillating run from inside his own half.
Either side of a Chester Ribbons try for the Pirates, more nifty footwork from Olowofela set up Nottingham scores. On 24 minutes he ducked and weaved to the five metre line after catching a Tom Threlfall chip on the 22, with the ball ultimately worked wide right for Williams to cross in the corner.
And the full back delivered an equally tricksy run five minutes later, again from the 22 to just shy of the try line, to set up Jay Ecclesfield this time. Threlfall recorded his first conversion of the afternoon to make the half-time score Cornish Pirates 14-27 Nottingham.
When James Cherry dived over, off the back of a drive to within sight of the Pirates’ goal line five minutes into the second period, it was looking like the long journey back to the Midlands would be a most enjoyable one for the Archers.
However, three converted tries in eight minutes from the hosts changed all that. Milo Hallam drove over after 50 minutes, swiftly followed by a great take by Matt McNab from a high kick that set up Harry Yates, then Harry Hocking crossed from a lineout maul. Bruce Houston slid the conversion just inside the right hand post to put Pirates ahead for the first time, by a solitary point.
Nottingham then managed to stem the tide and had two great opportunities to get back in front. With less than five minutes remaining, a Nottingham penalty in a central position on the Cornish ten metre line was pulled wide left by Threlfall.
And, with the clock in the red, there were two scrum resets a little further into the host’s half before Nottingham were awarded another penalty. Jai Johal’s first touch of the ball, having replaced Threlfall moments earlier, was to also kick wide left, so the Archers were left scratching their heads as to how they had let the game get away from them.