Sweet revenge over Nottingham Moderns as Mansfield storm into NLD Cup final

With a successful league season seeing Mansfield promoted after finishing second in the table, the cup competitions continue to rumble onward.

While defeat last week against Wensleydale saw the Blue-and-Whites out of the Papa John’s National Cup, there is still the NLD cup to be contested.

Saturday’s opponents were local rivals Nottingham Moderns, the sole team to win at Eakring Road this year.

That loss saw Mansfield’s discipline become costly as two yellow cards and one red card saw them play much of the second half with reduced numbers, so there were some wrongs to be righted with this game.

Head coach Wayne Robinson was understandably overjoyed at the result: “I thought we played exceptionally well at times and scored some really good tries.”

The opening exchanges were pretty even as both sides exchanged possession and territory while trying to get a feeling for the game.

The home team managed to make the territory count by spreading the ball wide and stretching their opponent’s defence. Rob Marsden was able to receive the ball with enough space to crash through a defending tackle and open up the scoring.

A difficult touchline conversion was missed but the gauntlet was laid down, 5-0 to the home team.

The scrum in particular was a place of dominion for the home team with the power of the pack being evident in the tangle they made of the Moderns scrum.

That said, penalties were not forthcoming despite this ascendancy as Moderns did an excellent job of retrieving their ball while under persistent pressure.

It was from one of these scrums that the visitors were able to win a penalty and get their first points on the board, a penalty kick closing the gap, 5-3 to the home team.

The game after this point became very staccato, neither team able to make it beyond a few phases before the whistle blew.

This could be a dropped ball, a forward pass or a penalty, both teams struggled to really put together consistent passages of play without the shrill sound of the referee’s whistle piercing the damp, soggy air.

It was this uneven flow of movement that saw only one more try added to the score before half-time.

A well worked driving maul from a lineout saw Phil Pogmore control and drive his pack to the line before dotting down.

A successful conversion from Taryn Elms saw the half-time score read 12-3 to the Blue-and-Whites.

The second half saw pretty much the worst start the home team could have wished for as Moderns punished them immediately.

Within seconds, the visitors had gathered the opening kick-off, linked together successive phases and used the width of the pitch to stretch the home team to breaking point and close the gap once more.

The conversion was successful and, with no more than two minutes played, the visitors were right back in it at 12-10.

Thankfully for the home supporters, the rest of the game largely belonged to Mansfield.

While there were still no penalties from the scrum dominance, it was disruptive enough that Moderns couldn’t use it as a wholly reliable platform.

The visitor’s lineout was similarly disrupted, not so much that it became unusable but enough that it dampened the ability to utilise the pace and width the backs wanted to play with.

The Blue-and-Whites’ own lineout functioned well despite Moderns doing some disrupting of their own.

Another penalty saw another driving maul formed, sucking in the defenders and leaving just enough space for Regan Hubbard to get up some steam, beating two defenders and getting his team back in the lead. A missed conversion nevertheless saw the home team back in a one-score lead, 17-10.

The home team were able to iron out some of the mistakes from the first half but the game was still lacking an evenness to its flow.

That said, it didn’t scupper the try-scoring opportunities as the pack recycled ball on the floor and the backs were willing to try and throw the ball around a bit, which resulted in matchday sponsor Woodforde Brewery’s man of the match Zane Chiappetta finding numerous ways to involve himself in the action.

The next score came from another driving maul and saw Pogmore emerge from the mass of bodies to claim his second. If it aint broke, don’t fix it! A successful conversion by Elms pushed Mansfield into a 24-10 lead.

Three more tries, all converted, saw the home team get to their final tally of 45.

First, a deft chip over the top of the defence by Elms saw the bounce prove difficult for everyone to deal with. Rob Marsden managed to gather and evade the defence and add his second of the day.

A scrum mere metres out from the try line saw the ball reach Kyan Johnson who characteristically cannonballed through opposing players to increase the score yet again.

However, the remaining score provided what was unequivocally the try of the game and perhaps even the try of the season.

Mark Wallace managed to gather the ball in his own half and set off trying to find some space, any space, to exploit.

What followed was a procession of grace, speed and power as Wallace broke through the defence, bolted forward and found Nathan Hind with a sublime offload.

Hind then galloped further upfield before finding Eddie Simmons with an equally glorious offload of his own.

Simmons saved the best until last with one final pass to Rio Turner who used his pace and footwork to beat three final defenders and finish what was a rather sensational passage of play.

With the aforementioned conversions slotted by Elms the final score saw the home team take the victory, 45-10.

This was a comprehensive victory played in what was ultimately a very stop start game.

Moderns started both halves well and clearly had a lot of variety to their game but with a scrum that was going backwards, a lineout that was disrupted and the general fitful nature of the game they struggled to really solidify that platform.

The Blue-and-Whites managed the second half well and have shown real growth as a squad.

There are still areas of the pitch, particularly stretching the ball wide out to the wings, that are being underutilised.

But when you end the season with just one defeat at home, which this game ultimately remedied, and secure the first promotion in over a decade, that’s fundamentally something to be proud of.