Nottingham Rugby v Coventry
10 April 2026 | The Bay | Elior Champ Rugby
After falling behind early on, Nottingham rallied to take a first half lead then battled to keep their noses ahead to end Coventry’s seven game winning run and claim the trophy in an enthralling second edition of the Matt Gallagher Cup.
Two tries from Kegan Christian-Goss, his first scores of the season, one from James Cherry, making him tied as the league’s top try scorer albeit only for a day, a breakaway from Will Yarnell and Gwyn Parks’s first ever try for the club gave Nottingham the 33-26 victory.
Parks credited the mentality of his teammates: “I don’t think we were quite at our best but we managed to get the job done. As a group, throughout the year, we’ve really matured. We’ve got some really good leaders in the squad now and that was proven today. We pulled back control, we went back to our process, we were all on the same page and that’s what got us the win in the end.”
There was positive intent from the off by the Archers but Cherry uncharacteristically spilled the ball within sight of the try line snuffing out the first attack. Coventry made the Archers pay for that indiscretion with two tries in quick succession, first from Alan Ferrie then Aristot Benz-Salomon forced his way over after a blistering run from Jordon Poole. Tommy Mathews could only convert the second of the two scores.
The Nottingham forwards were asserting superiority at the set piece throughout. Midway through the half they won a free kick at scrum time; Nottingham took the tap-and-go eight metres out and worked the ball to Kegan Christian-Goss to get on the scoresheet for the first time this campaign. Gwyn Parks converted.
And Nottingham nudged themselves ahead with just over five minutes remaining in the first period when Cherry was stopped just short at the first time of asking but he got up, dusted himself off and a couple of phases later Aniseko Sio handed him the ball back to plunge over and Parks added the extras.
That advantage was extended on the stroke of half time, as Nottingham cranked up the pressure with the aid of a couple of penalties, until Christian-Goss drove through a gap to get his second of the match and Parks made it 21-12 at the break.
The second half started much like the first with the hosts on the front foot until they coughed up the ball. It took a little longer for Alex Rae’s men to capitalise this time but full back Tom Bacon ultimately wrong-footed the Archers defence and Mathews brought his side within two.
With the match hanging in the balance, on 65 minutes double try scorer Christian-Goss turned provider as he broke the defensive line and found Yarnell on his inside shoulder to sprint in under the posts and claim the try bonus point.
Back came Coventry five minutes later, however, as replacement hooker Murray Davidson burrowed over for a score that Mathews improved.
But the tie was settled with less than five minutes remaining as Parks broke his try-scoring duck for Nottingham in acrobatic fashion in the right hand corner, after a combination of a grubber from Charlie Myall and driving run by Jack Stapley set him up.
Parks was in a playful mood describing his first five-pointer for the Archers: “Well, that’s what happens when you do your stretches and get the strength and conditioning working! To be honest, it’s not something that I practice too much but you see it on TV and you see the wingers here doing it so it’s not that hard is it?”
Unfortunately he couldn’t improve his own score, meaning the visitors could potentially level matters with a converted try, but the Archers held on to turn the ball over and bring a scintillating encounter to a close.