Scottish on a roll with three wins in a row
THESE are heady days at the Athletic Ground. A third win in as many games was the headline for Bryan Redpath’s side, but that was just part of the wider narrative, to which Nottingham contributed a great deal.
Dual-registered Harlequins hooker Jack Musk was sensational, bagging a hat-trick and showing the hallmarks of a technically gifted front rower.
Jack Ingall gave the hosts the perfect start when he crashed over, released by quick hands from his forward colleagues, though Nottingham’s response was clinical.
Richard Clift was teed up for the equalising score, but from there, it was Musk who took centre stage. He combined slickly with Tom Marshall off his own lineout throw to cheekily scurry home down the blindside, adding another minutes later as he was pulled over by the men around him.
The Midlanders were struggling to repel Scottish’s momentum, a Morgan Bunting penalty just about keeping them afloat.
Scottish, however, were purring. Marijn Huis had the easy task of flopping over the line after the ball was kept alive by Musk, Ingall and Harry Sheppard as the Nottingham defence failed to match up numbers, but they had finally started to go through their patterns in attack.
Hooker Harry Clayton was another to stand up, and it was his try – a carbon copy of Musk’s second – which just checked Scottish’s progress. Archie van der Flier made it a twopoint game with over 20 minutes to go, a moment of magic finally setting Scottish on their way.
Dan Nutton and Rob McCallum went 60 metres ahead of the scrum-half going over, instigating the opening of the floodgates. Musk used brute force to complete his hat-trick, Matt Wilkinson rampaging over for Scottish’s seventh as a Barbarian-esque vibe swept around the ground.
Jack Dickinson ensured Nottingham would travel home with a bonus point, but this was Musk’s day.
“He gives us a sense of calm and he just makes the right decisions. He’s come on a bundle over the last year and it’s easy to forget he’s still only 24 years of age,’ said Redpath.
“His performance today epitomises where this group is heading now, and whereas in previous weeks we might have folded at the moment we lost Noah Ferdinand to the bin, our mindset is different now.
“That we kept playing rugby and moving the ball at every opportunity, even in that period of adversity, was terrific and that’s the confidence we want to finish the season with.”