Paviors RFC

In the penultimate match of the season, we took a squad of 19 players to Beeston to play against Nottingham Casuals. We were missing a few players, especially in the forwards, so the front row had to put in a full shift, and we had 3 backs playing in the back row at times.

The game started with Paviors on the front foot from the off. Straight from the kick Nick retrieved the ball from a ruck and powered through the defence for probably the quickest try of the season within the 1st minute. It was out wide and the tough kick which was not converted.

From the restart Paviors were quickly into their stride again and the forwards led the way from a lineout when Jon darted down the blindside and from a resulting ruck, Reed (Captain for the day) scored a try with a pick and go. He’ll be able to re-count this to his dad, who just arrived in time to see it, and also scored himself over the weekend playing for the HORNS. Isaac kicked the conversion to put Paviors 12-0 up after 4 minutes.

The game settled down and bit but Paviors were in charge, winning turnovers at rucks, putting in impressive tackles, Oli driving a player back a few metres the highlight, and having lots of possession. It took until the 13th minute for the next try, this time Cole coming off his wing to score in the opposite corner when Casuals failed to get up and tackle him.

At this point it looked like it could be a runaway performance, but something changed. Casuals upped their effort and Paviors lost their shape and missed some tackles. The home team found gaps and space and scored 2 tries in quick succession to get them right back into the game at 12-17.

But just before the half hour mark Paviors again found space down the left wing and full back Isaac put a chip kick in that Casuals backs struggled to deal with. It was kicked on again and into the path of scrum half Henry who had run a good support line down the middle of the pitch and was able to collect the ball and dive over under the posts. Isaac converted to leave the score at 24-12 to Pavs at half time.

For the first quarter of the second half we swapped things around in the forwards. The 2nd row and Nr 8 took a 15 minute rest and on came Owen and Monty into the back row with Cole coming off the wing as well. This gave a very mobile if inexperienced back row but they tackled and rucked well.

The tries continued to flow and next up, 7 minutes into the half, was a try on the right wing for Danny after good work to create space and he had the foresight to make the conversion kick easier for Isaac. But Casuals kept fighting and got another one back with a good kick for the conversion.

Paviors scored again 14 minutes into the 2nd half. This time it was Benny who put a grubber kick through a gap in the back line that he was able to run onto to finish himself.

Paviors discipline did let them down during the second half. The referee was not happy with the way he was spoken to, not going through the captain, and this led to Casuals getting some good field position, Paviors even being marched back 10 metres. Paviors defence did hold for the rest of the game but had to work their way back up the pitch from further back than they needed to be.

For the last quarter Josh G, Lawson and Nick returned to the pitch as well as Elliot at scrum half who was struggling after partying too hard the night before. Well done for bringing him along Nathan, hopefully he's learnt a good life lesson. If we’d had a Clown of the Day, Elliot would have won it for coming off after the 1st 15 mins to lay flat out on the side of the pitch.

With the game coming to an end Paviors were again on the push for a final try and it looked like it was coming through Nick up the middle but he ran into the referee which led to an attacking scrum being awarded. Nick again looked like he might score as he picked from the base on the scrum but was well tackled. Henry fed the ball out from the ruck to Benny who showed the ball to the wing which opened a hole for him to trot through for his second try of the day and leave the scoreline at 41-19 to Paviors.

Paviors player of the match, awarded by the Casuals captain, was Monty who tackled and rucked hard during the 2nd half. Everyone played well, whichever position they were asked to perform in, and those out of position did not look out of place.