Nottingham Outlaws finally heralded the start of their 2025 rugby league campaign with the latest match up against The Royal Artillery at Lenton Lane on Saturday. In an entertaining encounter, the Outlaws did well to match a larger, more-physical Gunners outfit for the first half of the game before fading badly in the last half hour to end up on the wrong end of a 14-46 scoreline.
The Outlaws went into the match with a 21 man squad in a bid to give a number of new recruits a run out. These included new scholar signing Jacob Rigby, winger Michael Adeyemi and forwards Sam Bradley and George Christodoulou.
The Outlaws were clearly a bit rusty in opening stages and their lack of match practice was soon exposed as they fell off a straight forward tackle as the Gunners opened up a 0-6 lead with 15 minutes played.
The Outlaws began to find more attacking rhythm and they reduced the deficit when Captain Coryn Ward latched onto a wide pass to put the Outlaws on the score board and two minutes later Michael Adeyemi scored in virtually the same spot as the Outlaws crept into a 8-6 lead.
For the remaining twenty minutes of the opening stanza the Outlaws remained on top, dominating field position and possession but they couldn’t increase their tally and their inability to extend their lead was duly punished when the home side dropped the ball from a high kick and from the resultant scrum the Artillery powered through some weak Outlaws tackling to go back in front 8-12 as the half time whistle went.
Having down so well in the first half the omens looked good for the Outlaws but the second half got off to a shocker for the home side who once again fell off a straightforward tackle in midfield to allow the Gunners to extend their lead to two scores at 8-18.
An opportunistic try by Ali Waring who took a quick tap to score under the posts offered some hope for the home faithful and when Whitfield converted the deficit was reduced to one scare at 14-18.
Any thoughts of the Outlaws getting their hands on the Heroes trophy were soon dashed however and this time it was weak tackling out wide that led to their down fall with missed tackles on the wings leading to three quick fire trys.
With the Outlaws falling behind at 14-34 the game had effectively gone and with the Outlaws running rapidly out of steam the Gunners turned the screw with two further trys to close out the game at 14-46 in the visitors favour.
Despite the defeat there were a few positive showings with man of the match Jacob Butler picking up from where he left off last season with an excellent all-round performance.
The coaches now have only a week left to shuffle their resources and finalise the line up before they travel to Birmingham to open their 2025 league campaign at the home of the Bulldogs.