Nottingham Outlaws Mens First Team played their last away match of their 2022 Yorkshire Premier League Campaign when they travelled to Castleford to play Fryston Warriors on Saturday. Despite battling hard they couldn’t register a win and ended up on the wrong end of a 42-16 scoreline.
The Outlaws went into the match with a side containing a number of changes to the one that lost out against Siddal two weeks ago with Sam Morris and Josh Burgin coming into the three quarters, joined by debutant Jack Jonson in the centres whilst there was another new halfback pairing with Alex Whittle returning to partner Adam Cunliffe in the halfs.
The Outlaws started the game well, taking the fight straight to Fryston and after a couple of forays Alex Whittle opened the scoring when he put in a short grubber behind the home defence before regathering and stretching over the line despite the attention of two home defenders. James Hood added the extras and the Outlaws had taken an unlikely lead at 6-0.
Unfortunately the Outlaws defence has shown its frailties throughout the season and it was no different in this game as the home team soon got up to speed and began punching holes in and around the play the ball with alarming regularity. The net result was a glut of try’s in the home sides favour as they posted five unanswered touch downs to effectively close out the game with Fryston leading 26-6 as the half time whistle sounded.
There were limited options available to the coaching staff other than to re-shuffle the forwards with big Pat Crummay and Stew Readhead coming into the pack row and experienced backs Ivemey and Shepherd joining the fray.
The second half seemed to be going the same way that the first ended with the homeside capitalising on some lacklustre defending to stretch their lead to 30-6 with only five second half minutes played.
To their credit the Outlaws did rally and debutant Jack Jonson got a well deserved try, crashing over from short range to reduce the deficit to 30-10.
Indeed the Outlaws continued to battle away and despite two more home trys they hit back again when Adam Cunliffe collected a well weighted Strachan grubber to plant down under the sticks and with Adam Cunliffee converting the match ended with the Outlaws posting a 42-16 defeat.
At the end of the game a weary Outlaws side waited for the man of the match award. Despite a heavy defeat there were a few players in with a shout. Jack Jonson showed up well on debut and the ever improving TJ Brookdyk had his best game yet in an Outlaws shirt. However the bubbly deservedly went to forward Pat Crummay who made plenty of yards with ball in hand as well as putting in a strong defensive stint.
The Outlaws have the luxury of two free weekends before they return to action on the 10th September for the final match of the season at home to league leaders Toll Bar.