Nottingham Outlaws entertained Illingworth in a Women’s National League One game at Lenton Lane on Sunday. Both teams were looking to cement their place in the top four play off spot but unfortunately for the Outlaws it was the West Yorkshire outfit that took the spoils with an emphatic 44-4 defeat of the Outlaws.
The first half started badly for the Outlaws who found themselves 10-0 in arrears in as many minutes as some lackluster defending saw the Outlaws leak two early trys to find themselves up against it.
Thankfully the Outlaws managed to get back into the game with a superb solo effort from Robyn Gulley. The strong running number six received the ball straight from the scrum on the twenty-metre line, rounded her opposite number and scorched eighty metres down the pitch for a superb solo effort to reduce the deficit to 4-10.
The Gulley try breathed new life into the Outlaws who pressed harder with a series of attacks, but some lackluster handling meant they couldn’t add to their tally, and they were duly punished for their profligacy when the visitors notched three quick fire trys in the last ten minutes of the half to extend their lead to 26-4.
The third quarter of the game saw both teams relatively evenly matched with Violet Coppin and Leah Charles coming close to scoring but once again the Outlaws lacked the killer blow and they failed to add to their tally.
As the half progressed it was the visitors who began to show their prowess, scoring four more trys to run out convincing 44-4 victors, a deserved result but a scoreline that didn’t reflect how close the teams were for much of the game.
After the match the home side waited eagerly for the player of the match award. In the end the award was shared by Robyn Gulley and Leah Charles as the coaching stuff couldn’t separate the two players with both having fine games.
After the game coach Mark Stockman was far from disheartened by the scoreline commenting “This week was always going to be a tough week against a well drilled, well disciplined Illingworth team. I can’t fault the effort of the players through the game everyone gave 100% and left nothing out there. We simply ran out of steam with less numbers on the bench than we had originally hoped for. We dust ourselves off ahead of Thatto in two weeks time. I’m proud of the efforts this weekend however.”