London Scottish suffer away defeat to Nottingham 17-14, but pick up late losing bonus point.
Try scorers for Scottish included full back Luke Hibberd and replacement centre Dan Barnes, fly-half Harry Sheppard on kicking duties.
Nottingham’s try scorers were Luke Peters and Luke Cole, with Thomas Matthews kicking a penalty and two conversions.
The Exiles kicked off proceedings through the boot of Harry Sheppard and played from left to right in the first half.
The opening exchanges were scrappy, but Nottingham managed to secure a penalty after four minutes when right wing Rob Stevenson was deemed offside.
Nottingham pointed to the posts and Thomas Mathews kicked the three points. Nottingham 3-0 London Scottish.
With heavy rain having fallen all day and just before kick-off, both teams struggled with the greasy ball.
The Scots found themselves in their opponent’s half on several occasions thanks to breaks by the likes of Matt Gordon, Rob Stevensons and Jonas Mikalcius and also thanks to Nottingham’s ill-discipline, but it wasn’t until the 23rd minute that Luke Hibberd went over to score in the left-hand corner, the forwards going through the phases before the ball found its way into the full back’s hands. Sheppard converted to bring the scores to Nottingham 3-7 London Scottish with less than 20 minutes left of the first half.
Both teams swapped penalties before the half time break, which neither were able to capitalize from. The score at half time Nottingham 3-7 London Scottish.
The temperatures plummeted for the start of the second half, the fans having to rap up warm in the wintery weather conditions.
Nottingham came out on top in the second half scoring their first try of the night four minutes after the restart. Luke Peters pounced on the ball after Scottish lost it on their own try line. The conversion by Mathews brought the score to Nottingham 10-7 London Scottish.
Scottish spent a long period of time down in Nottingham’s half after the restart, with several penalties being kicked into the corners, but their opponent’s defence held strong and they managed to turn the ball over.
Nottingham’s second try came off the back of a driving maul with the pack flopping over the try line. The try was awarded to hooker Luke Cole. Matthews added the conversion to stretch the score to Nottingham 17-7 London Scottish, with twenty minutes still remaining.
With three minutes left Scottish were penalised for not rolling away at the break down, Nottingham pointed to the posts. Mathews’ kick went wide of the left up-right, so the scores remained Nottingham 17-7 London Scottish.
The clock was nearly in the red, but the Scots weren’t finished yet. Dan Barnes, who had come on to replace centre Matt Gordon, went in under the posts to secure the losing bonus point. Sheppard landed the conversion. The score at the final whistle, Nottingham 17-14 London Scottish.
