League: Yorkshire League
Siddal v Outlaws
After a run of three successive victories in the opening weeks of the 2021 campaign, Nottingham Outlaws suffered their first defeat of the season with a heavy 54-0 reversal at the hands of a powerful Siddal outfit at Halifax on Saturday. The home side packed proved too big and too mobile to handle at times but the Outlaws stuck to their task and ultimately will have learned a lot from this reversal.
The Outlaws coaching staff are clearly still experimenting with their new look squad and they rang the changes yet again, making a string of changes to the side that beat New Earswick last weekend, including no fewer than six debutants in the squad that travelled north on Saturday morning. In the backs Sailosi Wakawaka and Albert Paskevic slotted in at centre and wing, Brandon Whittaker came in at stand off to partner Adam Cunliffe in the halves with Tyler Beardsley and Ronan Treble making their Yorkshire League bow in the pack. Freddie Fearnley made up the sixth newcomer on the bench.
As the teams warmed up a quick look at the team sheets indicated that the Outlaws were going to be up against it as the home coaching staff were using the game to test their NCL stars ahead of next week’s opening fixtures. And so it proved!
From the first exchanges this new look Outlaws team struggled to get a grips with the big, yet mobile Siddal front six who made big inroads with each drive. Indeed the clock was only 2 minutes old when the home side opened their account and two quick fire trys, all on the back of superb handling moves, meant the shell-shocked Outlaws were soon 16-0 in arrears with the home side scoring at the rate of a point a minute!
Some harsh refereeing was not helping the cause and a string of penalties saw the Outlaws rarely getting hold of the ball, let alone mount any attacks and when the home team scored two more tries in the middle of the half it appeared that a record defeat might be on the cards!
To their credit the Outlaws did manage to steady the ship with James Amachree and Coryn Ward putting in a good tackling stint to shore up the home defence and Sam Andrews came off the bench and made an immediate impact, taking on Siddal pack down the middle and finally making some advances against the home pack as the Outlaws began to get to grips with the pace of the game.
After stemming the tide the Outlaws began to ask a few questions of the home defence and Alex Whittle and Adam Cunliffe began orchestrating a few moves in and around the Siddal red zone but they couldn’t find their way through a highly organised Siddal defensive line.
After a period of relatively even play the home side cut loose again and scored another try on the stroke of half time to make it 32-0 to Siddal with the Outlaws looking well and truly second best at this point.
The Outlaws half time interchange options were somewhat limited, with Gaz Whitfield and Alex Whittle both off the field with head injuries so Freddie Fearnley was drafted into the forwards to give some fresh impetus into the Outlaws front six.
The second stanza started off pretty much where the first one ended with the home team posting two quick-fire scores to stretch the lead to 44-0 with 30 minutes still to play as the Outlaws struggled to cope with the fast moving ball and once again it looked like the floodgates were about to open.
However to their credit the Outlaws did not throw in the towel and they had their best period of the game, with Adam Cunliffe and debutant Brandon Whittaker at last getting some ball and field position to work with and the Outlaws came close to opening their account, twice being held up over the line as Abe Sua and Joe Moran came close to registering a score for the Outlaws.
After a period of Outlaws dominance the home side cut loose again scoring two more tries to finish off their scoring with the home side now 54-0 ahead.
The Outlaws just failed to get the score they were desperately hoping for literally on the final move of the game. A superb kick from Brandon Whittaker saw Adam Cunliffe dive to get a hand on the ball but the referee judged the grounding was on the line. Indeed a try would have been fitting for man of the match Cunliffe who had run himself into the ground over the full eighty minutes in an attempt to get something from the game for his brave charges.
After the game, player coach Adam Cunliffe was far from despondent and was quick to praise his charges, in the knowledge that they wont come up against an outfit as strong as this one in the remainder of the campaign, adding “It was a tough day at the office against what was a very strong Siddal team. Despite that, the encouraging thing is we improved as the game went on. We had 6 players on debut and they all stood up well. Our communication could have been better and that’s an area we will look at this week but the resilience and commitment from the lads was great.”
The defeated Outlaws now have a week to rally the troops before they travel back up to Yorkshire for their Premier Division game against Cutsyke in Castleford on Saturday.
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Outlaws v New Earswick All Blacks
Rugby league returned to Lenton Lane on Saturday for the first time since August 2019 when Nottingham Outlaws entertained New Earswick All Blacks in their opening Yorkshire Premier Division fixture. Despite the wet and windy weather the Outlaws played some excellent attacking rugby, outscoring their dogged visitors to finish with a deserved 28-14 victory.
Head coach Adam Cunliffe had something of a selection conundrum going into the game having used over forty players in the two pre-season friendlies leading up to the match. After much thought the rookie coach went with a mixture of experience and new faces for his first competitive match in charge.
The changes included two players on debut, hooker Joe Moran on the bench with speedster James Amachree on the wing. Other changes included a new look centre partnership of Charlie Clarke and Coryn Ward to increase the attacking options once the forwards had done the hard work down the middle.
The match kicked off in a swirling wind and pouring rain and the difficult conditions seemed to affect the visitors the most. Twice in succession athe All Blacks dropped the ball putting the Outlaws on the front foot from the get-go and they soon capitalised when a free-flowing move from right to left saw Charlie Clarke scorch over with some good footwork to make it 4-0 to the Outlaws with less than five minutes played.
Despite the strong start the Outlaws could make little impression against a well drilled All Blacks defence that was now growing in confidence after a shaky start, putting plenty of men in the tackle and after twenty five minutes of play neither side had carved out a clear chance since the opening score.
With ten minutes of the half remaining the match suddenly sprung to life when a kick through by New Earswick rebounded back into the kickers arms who put winger Dean Smith away as the All Blacks levelled to make it 4-4 with minutes left to the half time hooter.
The visitors try seemed to provide something of a wake up call to the Outlaws who stormed back up the field. A huge run down the middle by prop Mike Stewart finally split open the New Earswick defence and Adam Cunliffe popped up on his shoulder to take the pass out of the tackle and put the Outlaws back in front within a minute of conceding. Gaz Whitfield added the extras from bang in front to make it 10-4 to the Outlaws after 40 minutes of absorbing rugby league football.
The half time break saw the coaching team looking to breathe new life into the team and Joe Moran and Abraham Sua came off the bench to freshen up an Outlaws pack that had worked hard playing into the elements during the first stanza.
The second half started with the Outlaws looking to utilise the stiff breeze that was in their favour but a couple of dropped balls saw them very much on the back foot in the early exchanges. Indeed it came as no surprise when the All Blacks scored after a period of consistent pressure.
Once again the damage was done off the back of a ricochet from the kick through, the deflected ball wrong footing the Outlaws defence and Ben Husband pounced to peg the Outlaws lead back to a slender 10-8 margin.
Things then went from bad to worse when experienced second rower Oliver Dale went down with a bad ankle injury, stopping the game for 15 minutes and when the match re-started the result seemed very much up in the air, with the All Blacks growing in confidence all the time and more and more of the play taking place in and around the Outlaws forty.
After sixty minutes of play Outlaws finally managed to break the siege, having struggled to get into their opponents half for much of the second period, forcing their way into the All Blacks red zone for the first time since the break.
Having set the platform they stretched their lead to two scores when a nicely weighted flat pass saw Charlie Clarke once again use his footwork to grab a much needed try for the Outlaws. Indeed the Clarke try made it a fine brace for the young centre to seal a man of the match performance!
Squires converted to make it 16-8 and two minutes later the Outlaws lead was extended further when George Strachan used his strength and experience at acting half to dummy and go from short range, powering through for a fine short-range effort.
At 22-8 with ten minutes to play the All Blacks were still technically in the game and when Ben Husband bagged his second of the game to male it 22-14 the game was once again in the balance!
Whilst there may have a few furrowed brows amongst the Outlaws coaching staff. any last minute nerves were quickly dispelled when the home side once again powered down the pitch off the back of some fine interplay amongst the forwards. Having gained a foothold in the All Black red zone Adam Cunliffe celebrated his first match in charge with his second try of the game to wrap up the match with the Outlaws posting a hard-earned 28-14 victory against a determined All Blacks side that never threw in the towel.
After the game a tired but happy Outlaws coach, Adam Cunliffe was quick to pay tribute to his charges commenting ” I thought it was a good challenge for us today and a real arm wrestle in difficult conditions. There was probably less space around the ruck than previous weeks but our ball movement is starting to look sharper which is encouraging. Defensively I thought we had a lot of grit, two of their tries came from ricocheted kicks so that stood out for us today. With the ball we generally picked the right options and stayed patient.
In terms of outstanding players, I think we were strong across the board! Our outside backs got us going pretty well and our middles were strong in defence. Mike Stewart looked dangerous and I’m looking forward to seeing how his combination with Clark progresses. Finally I just want to send best wishes to Oliver Dale after his injury today, and to let him know that the whole club wishes him a speedy recovery!”
Next week the Outlaws face a stiff challenge when the travel up to Halifax to take on last years top four outfit Siddal.
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