Nottingham weren’t able to follow up their fantastic win over Hartpury last weekend with another good performance this weekend, as they were heftily beaten by a very strong Ealing Trailfinders side in the Championship Cup.
Ealing themselves came into the game with a point to prove, having lost three of their last five games including a dramatic one-point loss to Jersey last weekend.
An early blitz saw the home side go 19-0 up withing twenty minutes, but Nottingham did get a try back. Michael Stronge caught the Ealing defence napping with a quick tap penalty and a beautiful grubber kick for Ryan Olowofela to run onto to score.
But the Trailfinders answered straight back, as Uzokwe managed to push over the line after multiple phases to secure the bonus point. Soon after, they scored their fifth try, as Steven Shingler regathered a chip in behind and offloaded it to put Reuben Bird-Tulloch under the sticks.
Bird-Tulloch then turned provider as he burst through the middle before offloading to Jordan Burns to score under the posts. Then with five minutes to go before the break, another well weighted Lancaster kick found Jonah Holmes to dot down in the corner. Will Montgomery crashed over for try number eight on the stroke of half-time to make it 52-7.
The second half saw a much-improved Nottingham performance. Despite Kyle White getting over the line five minutes after the restart, the visitors defence proved to be much tighter in the second period.
Craig Hammond’s side even got their second score through Michael Green ten minutes from time, as the centre bundled over after a strong rolling maul had come up just short, and then with time almost up, Uzokwe muscled over for his second.
Nottingham will hope to get back on track next week as they head to Jersey for their final Championship Cup pool match.