On a rain-sodden pitch at The Bay it was always going to be a battle on the front line, as described by 50-cap flanker Sam Green: “Everyone’s in the engine room when it’s like this. We always joke about the forwards being pigs, going to work, but today we had 23 of them. It was pretty dark [in there] but we ground it out and we won it.”

It was the visitors who got off to the better start, however, opening the scoring around the quarter hour mark. Harry Graham did well to defend a grubber in the shadow of his own posts but he was forced over the try line, giving Cambridge a five metre scrum. After being stopped short a couple of times flanker Dan Eckersley drove over but Otumaka Mausia couldn’t add the extras.

Just over ten minutes later Nottingham had two rather untidy lineouts in succession. The first was due to Cambridge jumping across and giving away the penalty, that meant the second was on the five metre line. Jack Dickinson cleaned up the loose ball and charged for the line. He didn’t quite make it but a few phases later Jay Ecclesfield burrowed over. Gwyn Parks converted to put the Archers in front.

The visitors were immediately back on the offensive, however, helped by a Nottingham knock-on, and Joe Green crossed in the corner to put his side back into the lead. Mausia once again couldn’t improve the score from the touchline.

The hosts closed out the half on the front foot, crossing the try line twice, but neither effort counted. The first time the final pass was forward and on the stroke of half-time Cambridge held the ball up, keeping the score at the interval at Nottingham 7-10 Cambridge.

Nottingham continued their momentum after the break, though, and within a minute of the restart a dummy from Levi Roper allowed him to break the defensive line to put the Craig Hammond’s men in front once more, with Parks converting.

That was the cue for Cambridge to camp on the Nottingham try line for five minutes or so, with Jack Doorey-Palmer eventually going over and Mausia getting his first points of the night, swinging the pendulum back the way of the Blood and Sand.

With just over an hour played, replacement hooker Arthur Allen, on the day before his 27th birthday, drove over under a pile of bodies and Parks made it three for three from the tee to put Nottingham ahead once again, this time to stay.

That was despite relentless pressure from Cambridge for the majority of the remainder of the contest. Green explained how Nottingham went about their defensive effort: “There are teams that can go to work when it’s muddy and horrible like this and Cambridge did well there today. It’s hard work, you’ve got to dig in and be disciplined enough to get an exit and get that pressure off your shoulders and we managed to do that just enough times today.”