Nottingham were made to work hard by Champ Rugby’s bottom team, having to overturn a 17 point halftime deficit with five tries in the second period to run out 36-32 winners, claiming their fourth bonus point win from the first five matches of the season.
It was a bright afternoon in Cambridge, made brighter for the Archers by David Williams scoring his 100th try for the club after 10 minutes, becoming only the sixth player ever to do so.
The centurion was delighted with his achievement: “It feels really, really good. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about the 100 tries before the game but it was great to get over the line early doors. I didn’t have to do much for it, which is testament to the boys inside me. It’s awesome to be in that select group of people.”
But, with the wind at their backs, the rest of the half belonged to the Blood and Sand as Rhys Fulford delivered an almost immediate reply and further tries by Zac Nearchou and Ethan Thorne on debut, after a penalty on the half hour mark by former Archer Jamie Annand, gave the home side a 22-5 advantage at the break.
Captain Williams described the discussions in the dressing room that led to the second half fightback: “We didn’t have an awful lot of ball in that first half and when we did have that ball, we didn’t do anything useful with it. We were soft on defence. Stern but appropriate words were said to us at half time. We players had to look internally to make sure we solved it.”
The first solution was offered up by James Cherry as he caught the home side napping by sneaking to the front of a five metre lineout on 48 minutes and crossing unopposed.
Five minutes later the comeback was well and truly on as the Archers opted for a more traditional maul from a lineout in a similar position. As it went to ground scrum half Josh Goodwin sniped over the line.
And it wasn’t long before the visitors got their noses ahead as an overload on the left saw Sam Mercer dive over in the corner and Gwyn Parks’s conversion opened the two point lead.
The pendulum swung back Cambridge’s way, however, as Levi Reweti slipped a couple of tackles to record their bonus point try.
But Nottingham went ahead for good when Will Yarnell started a counter-attacking move from a penalty on his own 22 that went via Michael Green and Charlie Davies back to the replacement scrum half to dot down.
The win was secured with a belter of a try set up by a scintillating run by Evan Mitchell from deep in his own half up to the opposing 22. Mitchell’s inventive offload found its way to Sam Green to take it over the line.
Annand recorded a late consolation for the home side but it was Nottingham who headed back up the A1 with five points in the bag and a new man in the 100 club.