Tremendous comeback makes it four in a row

The pressure from NBC continued for much of the first quarter and Keyworth continued to make mistake after mistake at crucial times despite it being clear from the outset that they had the ascendancy at the scrummage.

Eventually they clawed their way back into the game and after a series of penalties in the NBC 22, the evergreen Dave Marriott blasted his way over from short range. Simon Richards added the extra 2 to level the scores.

However, the mistakes continued and Keyworth allowed NBC too much freedom out wide. So much so that a further 2 tries were added by NBC before the break and the home side found themselves turning round 12 points adrift at 7 – 19.

In a comeback resonant of Lazarus, the second half was all black and yellow. Three cracking tries, from Jason Holland, Jamie Birch and Ollie Attewell, with a further conversion gave Keyworth a well deserved victory by 24 – 19.

The driving of the Keyworth scrum was responsible for creating the platform that enabled the backline, featuring 5 of last year’s U17s, to really attack the NBC defence. With a strong bench enabling some of the older statesmen to rest at regular intervals, this was truly a team effort.

This week’s special mentions go to Dave Marriott, who gets the Man of the Match vote for his great try and his awesome scrummaging that had NBC’s pack in reverse gear throughout the afternoon.

Great runs from Adam Waldron, Mark Scott and Lee Broadhead epitomised the pack’s efforts, whilst Jamie Birch’s first tackle set the tone defensively. John Scott won more than his share of lineout ball despite the problems with the throwing in, on the day.

The key area for improvement for this team, is discipline, which is lacking in a couple of areas, if they expect to be serious challengers for the Pennant title.

That now makes it four consecutive wins (3 in the Pennant) and their captain stated, “I’m immensely proud of the guys today, they showed great resilience and character to comeback against a team as good as Nottingham Boots Corsairs. It’s a pleasure to be part of a team that works so hard for each other.”