Nuns fight back as Derby left stunned
THREE of the seven games beat the freeze with Peterborough Lions,
Nuneaton and Lichfield all braving the cold to claim bonus point victories.
Nuneaton produced a late comeback at home to
Derby, winning 30-24 in a match the visitors had led for much of the afternoon.
After a tight opening quarter, Ben Marlow claimed the opening try for Derby, but the Nuns struck straight back to level the scores, Nuneaton edging ahead with a penalty soon after.
Derby would restore their advantage though as two tries in five minutes saw them take control and with a 19-8 lead.
A converted try and penalty would see Nuneaton back to within one, only for Derby to go up the other end and claim their bonus point but the conversion was missed.
That gave the Nuns the opportunity when they crossed shortly after, and although the missed conversion kept them behind, they wouldn’t be denied and snatched victory with their fourth try late on.
Lichfield meanwhile withstood a late Newbold
on Avon comeback to secure all five points on the road with a hard-fought 24-21 victory.
Newbold scored the opening try but their lead was soon cancelled out by Jon Doubleday’s score for Lichfield, before a second try put the visitors in the lead.
Thomas Adams finished a fine move to extend the lead to 17-7 at half-time, and a fourth quickly followed after the interval as Greg Massey secured the bonus point.
From 24-7 the win looked in the bag, but Newbold ended strongly and crossed twice, the second a penalty try, but Lichfield hung on to pull themselves out of the bottom three.
In the day’s other game, Peterborough Lions
bounced back from last week’s defeat to leaders Birmingham and Solihull Bees with a comprehensive 56-29 win at home to Bournville, to move back above Newport
Salop into second, though they are 11 points behind Bees, having played a game more.
Elsewhere the weather was the winner with the snow and freezing conditions forcing the games at Longton, Newport Salop, Old Halesonians and Sandbach all to be postponed.