Nottingham ended their season with an impressive win over Caldy thanks to four tries within 15 minutes of each other, not to mention a stunning man of the match performance by Ellis Mee in his final game in a Nottingham shirt.
The majority of the first half passed without many big chances for either side to score. Caldy did manage to get the first points on the board with a penalty 15 minutes in. They won the penalty after countering well, working the ball up to within thirty metres of the Green and White try line having successfully defended a lineout deep in their own territory.
Nottingham nearly responded immediately, winning the ball from kickoff and putting together a dangerous attack inside the 22, however Matt Arden’s long final ball intended for David Williams was intercepted by William Robinson who had nothing but green grass in front of him. It looked like he could go the whole length of the pitch to score, but Mee reeled him in and made a huge tackle at his own 22, and then even won a penalty for good measure.
The game then spent the next fifteen minutes in the middle of the park again, and it had all the makings of finishing a low scoring affair.
However, with ten minutes until the break the floodgates opened and the Archers scored three big tries to build up a strong lead before the half.
Mee was the lightning rod that started the tries, scoring the first by shrugging off a tackle on the halfway line and then outpacing the entire Caldy defence, and then setting up the second by once again breaking through the defence at the halfway line and offloading to Harry Graham to beat the last defender.
For the third try, it was Jack Dickinson who got loose, rumbling his way deep into Caldy territory before Jack Stapley spotted a crease and paced his way to the try line to make the score 21-3 heading into half time.
Nottingham came out of the break just as they had gone into it, kicking a penalty to the corner and bundling James Cherry over the line from the resulting lineout less than five minutes after the restart.
Caldy got one back five minutes later, quickly working the ball up to the Nottingham try line and then giving it to the hooker Matt Gallagher who pushed his way over the line.
The final half hour passed with Nottingham creating a number of good chances but were never able to put on the finishing touches to extend their lead. It didn’t matter though, as they had already secured the bonus point and an emphatic 20-point victory to end their Championship campaign.