Currie 16 - 23 Nottingham: Currie mauled but far from disgraced against Nottingham

THE rolling maul flattened a brave Currie side that otherwise matched and sometimes outplayed the full-time professional players of Nottingham, currently sitting fourth in the English Championship.

The effectiveness of the maul was glimpsed briefly in a ferociously competitive first half when it was almost impossible to separate the teams as play flowed from end to end and neither could gain the upper hand.

The first time the visiting green and white jerseys formed a maul it travelled 30 metres into the Currie 22 before being illegally collapsed to allow full back Jack Stokes to pop over the penalty.

But it really came into its own in the second 40 when three times a five-metre lineout was transformed into an unstoppable rumble over the line. This produced the three tries that decided the match although Currie held on doggedly and ended with a try that brought them to within seven points.

It was a frustrating end to Currie’s ambitions in the British & Irish Cup, buoyed as they had been by a tremendous first win in the tournament at Swansea last week.

Currie captain Mark Cairns, restored to the back row after missing the Swansea triumph while on duty with the World 7s Series in Dubai, admitted his team-mates had no answer to the maul as Nottingham so ruthlessly deployed it.

“We competed well at the contact area and were always dangerous with ball in hand. We missed a few kicks at goal too so it was a game we could have won even though we could do nothing about those mauls,” he said.

Currie had the chances to win the game in the first half, but the tries that had flowed so freely in Swansea just didn’t materialise. Nottingham had their chances too in the ebb and flow. At one point Currie scrum half Chris Leck was sin-binned for blatantly killing the ball on his own line and preventing a try. Minutes later Nottingham lock Lee Morley joined him in the bin for an identical offence at the opposite end of the pitch.

The 3-6 scoreline at half-time was probably a fair reflection of the play but after the break Nottingham majored on the maul and a hat-trick of tries duly followed – the third by flanker Jonny Baird, son of Scottish international and British Lion Roger Baird. The damage was mostly done in the third quarter when Nottingham went clear and left Currie clinging on by their fingernails, demonstrating their frustration and defiance with a final try that was scant reward for their efforts and not enough to make a real difference.

Scorers: Currie: Tries: Mansfield. Cons: Forbes. Pens: Forbes 3. Nottingham: Tries: Taylor, Cobden, Baird. Cons: Mama. Pens: Stokes 2.

Currie: J Forbes, B Mansfield, D Fife, A MacMahon, J Johnstone, G Hunter, C Leck, J Cox, F Gillies, C Phillips, S Marcell, S Turnbull, S Burton, M Cairns, R Weston. Replacements: A Kelly, R Merrilees, G Temple, M Peacock, R Snedden, M Erskine, J Houston.

Nottingham: J Stokes, A Savage, D Mama, J Munro, J Cobden, J Cobden, F Barnham. M Parr, O Taylor, M Shields, M Todd, L Morley, R Cooper, J Baird, P Eggleshaw. Replacements: R Olive, J Duffey, B Prescott, C Hammond, S. Romans, J Bradford, R Hough.

Referee: Greg MacDonald.