Simonds’ guile lights up grim affair in Nottingham

GRIM is a fair word to use to describe this windswept quarter-final but one moment of guile by Nottingham’s centre Will Simonds gave the occasion something to remember.

The way Simonds, on loan from Wasps, cut his way through the defence two minutes into the second half set up Nottingham’s resilient second-half display which brought a win by two tries to nil.

Nottingham sealed victory 17 minutes later when quick thinking at a lineout between hooker Luke Cole and flanker Will Owen allowed the latter to escape down the touchline for a second try.

Simonds’ intervention left Nottingham’s head coach Neil Fowkes hoping the centre will be a regular at Lady Bay for the rest of the season even allowing for Wasps’ A-league demands. The player’s target is to force his way into England U20s World Cup campaign.

Overall, Nottingham played better against the swirling conditions than in a first half when Doncaster failed to take advantage of good possession.

“I’m really pleased and proud of the boys,” Fowkes said about a fourth successive win triggered by a combative display in losing to leaders Newcastle in the league last month.

Doncaster’s Clive Griffiths departed thoroughly frustrated. The veteran DoR, who steps down at the end of the season, felt his defence should have stopped Simonds as the centre accepted Alex Dolly’s neat pass to cut a line between a set scrum and a flaky midfield.

Griffiths expected a better performance despite fielding a muchchanged team from last week’s win over Jersey.

“The conditions definitely played a part, but it didn’t stop them running through. We defended really well in the first half, but we gave them two soft tries,” he said.

Neither team gained plus marks in a first half blighted by a series of spats that needed far quicker intervention from referee Anthony Woodthorpe. He eventually plucked up the courage to intervene in the 21st minute, yellowcarding scrapping props in the home team’s Sio Aniseko and Doncaster’s Marc Thomas.

Nottingham weathered the swirling wind and Doncaster’s forward rushes to turn round 3-0 up, Shane O’Leary landing one kick from three in very testing conditions.

The second half was lit up by Simonds’ moment and that break down the left by Owen. Doncaster, despite wind behind, conjured very little and lost substitute wing Steve McColl to the sin bin for a deliberate knock on.