Nottingham Rugby suffered a 33-15 defeat at the hands of Yorkshire Carnegie at The Bay in the Greene King IPA Championship on Friday evening.
Scores from Tim Cardall and Dave Williams were not enough for the Green and Whites with the visitors running in five tries to secure a bonus point win.
It took just five minutes for Nottingham to edge into the lead when they were awarded a penalty at the scrum. Shane O’Leary pointed to the posts and slotted the kick over to put them 3-0 up. But it was the visitors who scored the first try of the game. A loose lineout from the home side was capitalised on and Jade Te Rure found a gap to burst through and score. Jacob Umaga added the extras to make it 7-3.
Yorkshire were in control and that showed on 20 minutes when they scored their second try of the game. Joseph Buckle bundled over off the back of a driving maul with Umaga converting the score to bring the score to 14-3.
The Green and Whites needed to see some ball and once they did they made it count when they crossed the line for the first time. Some patient play eventually saw Tim Cardall score from close range with O’Leary adding the extras once again, bringing his side within four.
Nottingham finished the half strongly but failed to take their chances in good positions with several errors costing them, as they went into the break 14-10 down.
Seven minutes into the second half and everyone at The Bay was on their feet after Dave Williams’ stunning individual try. The ball was lofted over the top by Yorkshire and Williams caught it before racing through from 80 metres to dive over in the corner. O’Leary’s conversion was unsuccessful with the score standing at 15-14 to the home side.
Yorkshire responded well, however, scoring their third try of the game just five minutes later. Harry Davey dotted over in the corner to score before Umaga added the extras, edging his side back into a 21-15 lead.
Fowkes’ side were struggling to see the ball and make it count when they did, with the visitors pushing for the bonus point score. That came on 68 minutes when Richard Mayhew dotted down from close range. Umaga missed the conversion, leaving the score at 26-15 to the visitors.
Carnegie managed the game well in the final ten minutes and added a fifth converted try through George Watkins, comfortably holding onto their lead to take five points back to Leeds in a frustrating evening for the Green and Whites.