Monday 27th April 2009 at Meadow Lane, Nottingham
Nottingham Trent University 1 XV – 13 (0)
The University of Nottingham 1 XV – 13 (3)
An adrenaline pumped night left 3,000 blown away in the latest leg of this year’s Nottingham Varsity Series.
Trent managed to secure a famous draw, despite seeing two players sent off at the stroke of half-time, and were unlucky not win the game.
Adam Pegg saw red as he unnecessarily levelled his opposite number, and was quickly followed as a late tackle on Nottingham captain Rob Spingall produced a yellow reducing Trent to 13-men for ten-minutes.
Nottingham went into the break 3-0 to the good, but failed to make their superiority in numbers count in the second period. A try from centre Will Dias on 54-minutes did give them a 10-point lead and most could not see Trent coming back against their opponents who have played in a higher league all season.
However, a superb display of courage, grit and determination saw Trent edge back into the game with a penalty from Greg Moore, before he delightfully delivered a cross-field kick for wing-Ashley Patterson.
Charlie Davies, who is off to play in France next year, directed his forward back forcefully, as they were much more disciplined, phenomenally taking the lead with a penalty in off the post with 15-minutes remaining.
Nottingham were shell shocked, and had no real leadership after Springall went off with a calf strain. They did manage to produce some attacking impetus through fly-half Will Nelson, England Student representative and on the books of Glen Delany’s Green and Whites, but the Trent defence stood strong.
Oli Pointon shattered the dreams of an astonishing Trent win, needing two penalty attempts to level the game on 80-minutes.
The result left the overall series five-all with just cricket and men’s and women’s hockey remaining, which will be concluded this week.
