How seven players fared in a clash of the loanees
THE day after Leicester Tigers made it eight wins from as many games, seven squad members featured in the same Championship encounter.
Midlands rivals Coventry and Nottingham met at the Butts Park Arena, with the home side running out 35-12 winners.
Tigers reporter Ethan Clamp was at the match to track the Leicester Tigers loanees - some of them could be featuring for their parent club during the Premiership Cup fixtures ahead over the next two weeks...
COVENTRY Dan Richardson
Made his first start for the Championship side after making five appearances off the bench this season. The loosehead prop, who was nursing an impressive black eye, got involved early on with a few tight carries and a couple of good tackles.
The scrum battle was pretty even for most of the first half, but the second-half didn’t start too well for the Tigers loanee as he was driven backwards in the first scrum of the second half and penalised.
However, it didn’t take too long for him to make amends with a lovely pop pass in the set-up of Evan Mitchell’s try. He was replaced in the 56th minute.
Sam Aspland-Robinson
Named on the teamsheet on Friday lunchtime, he was a late withdrawal from the Coventry side during the warm-up.
Having missed the first four rounds of the Championship season with a hamstring injury, a tightening of the muscle saw him withdrawn as a precaution.
Will Hurd
The Ashby-born prop made his second appearance for the Butts Park Arena side, coming on to the field in the 59th minute.
He significantly impacted his first scrum, with a dominant hit pushing back the Nottingham front row. However, the next scrum he conceded a penalty.
The nine-times capped Scottish U20 didn’t see too much of the action following that apart from a few good tackles in the tight exchanges.
NOTTINGHAM Joe Browning
In his fifth match of the season for the Archers, the England U20 winger is still looking for his first try in Nottingham colours.
He had a mixed first half, dropping a few passes when Nottingham looked to break, and gave away an intercept that could have led to more trouble but for the hand of Dan Lancaster.
But the 20-year-old winger ended the half well with a good few carries in the lead up to the Carl Kirwan try.
He had a fairly quiet second half barring one good carry from deep before being replaced on 54 minutes.
Dan Lancaster
He started at inside centre and saw little of the action in the early exchanges but did really well to stop a loose ball intercept from being more threatening by getting a finger to the ball first.
He was kept busy defensively with the physical ball carrier Will Owen being his opposite number, but barring one missed tackle on the 12, he kept him reasonably quiet. Lancaster’s defence was again on show when the speedy Louis James found space down the wing before trying to find the man inside, but the 20-yearold tracked the support player well and tackled him man and ball.
It wasn’t just his defence that shone. The ex Leeds Tykes youngster put in a few well-timed passes, guiding his Nottingham team-mates into space.
His voice could be heard loud and clear throughout the game, leading his more senior forwards and backs into where they should be. It was a performance from a player destined to be well at home in the Premiership.
Archie Vanes
The England U20s Grand Slam-winning hooker got 24 minutes off the bench, making a good early carry.
The ex-academy captain was solid at lineout time, making his four lineout throws. He made another strong carry later on and got involved in some tackling in the tight exchanges but was penalised for tackling a player without the ball late on.
Sam Edwards
The scrum-half also got 24 minutes off the bench and started well with a strong kick chase that put the Coventry full-back under pressure causing a knock-on. The speed that the academy graduate added to the game on his arrival was evident, and his service from the base was spoton.
He ended the game well, seeing the space on the blindside from a scrum and putting David Williams through, which led to the ex Tigers’ wonder solo try.
COVENTRY V NOTTINGHAM SHOWCASED TALENTS OF TOP-FLIGHT