Mansfield 30 – 30 Southwell

There was a chance that this game may not take place after much of the UK, and indeed Mansfield and surrounding areas, took an absolute battering from Storm Babet on Friday. With rivers and ponds bursting their banks, areas of town looking like a raging river and swathes of the Eakring Road pitch underwater, there was some concern about the viability of this game. However, with a few hours of, relatively, clear skies, the pich drained wonderfully and Mansfield took on local rivals Southwell in a game that left much of the crowd without fingernails. A tense, and somewhat unusual, final few minutes saw Mansfield claw themselves back onto the scoreboard and share the points.

Head coach Nathan Hill was frustrated but pleased at the end result: ‘I hope we don’t play too many more of those. We fought well at the end but our discipline needs to be better.’

With so much heavy rain the day before, it was no surprise that both teams struggled to maintain hold of the ball at times. The first half was a close contest with each pack of forwards disrupting the rucks and earning turnover penalties. The first points went to the home team with Taran Elms slotting over a kick at goal to take his team into a 3-0 lead. A trade off on points then followed for the remainder of the half. Southwell managed to show the power of their forwards with a catch and drive from a penalty, setting up the maul and powering towards the line to register their first points. An unsuccessful conversion saw them still take the lead, 5-3.

The remainder of the half saw an exchange of kicks at goal. Both teams were able to secure good field position and throw the ball around in the hope of stretching the game wider but, ultimately, it was penalties in the pack that saw the points added. One more from Southwell and two more from Elms saw the half time score 9-8 to the blue-and-whites.

The second half saw a good start from the home team as Rio Turner did what he does best, gather the ball, put on the afterburners and run 50 metres, evading roughly half the opposing team in the process. He dotted the ball under the posts to make the conversion easier, which Elms slotted shortly after. 16-8 to the blue-and-whites.

However, Mansfield’s discipline then began to slip and they were getting on the wrong side of the referee. Southwell used this to build themselves a platform and not only get themselves back in to the game but build a solid lead. With 3 tries on the bounce, 2 converted, Mansfield were now on the wrong end of a 27-16 scoreline. The scrums belonged to Southwell and while Mansfield’s defence absolutely stopped more tries being scored, it was a turnaround on the scoreboard that Mansfield would have to work hard to try and overcome.

The blue-and-whites were able to get themselves back into the contest and put some phases together. The scrum was being disrupted but they were able to regain the ball both in the set piece and in the rucks, largely due to the ability of matchday sponsor The Mansfield Vets Player of the Match Lewis Cowlishaw to quickly find the ball and distribute efficiently. Some slick phase play and pinpoint passing saw Oliver Avison crash through to get Mansfield’s momentum going again. A successful conversion saw the score reduced to just 3, 27-23.

However, as is often the case in close games like this, the momentum swung once again as Southwell were able to extend their lead to 7 with a successful shot at the posts. 30-23 with only seconds remaining and Southwell just had to control the restart to claim victory.

That really should have been the end of the contest. In theory, Southwell would receive the kick, keep it tight for a couple of phases and then kick it off the field to celebrate victory. However, as it turned out this game had more false finishes than a Dusty Rhodes wrestling match. First, Southwell did indeed receive the ball straight from the kick off, however, perhaps due to a simple mistake regarding how long was left, it was kicked straight out again. With time left on the clock, a Mansfield lineout was awarded. This mistake was compounded by the fact that the lineout was now just outside the Southwell 22, a useful position for a team who needed to score a converted try for the draw. Unfortunately, Mansfield were unable to do anything with this position and ended up giving away a free kick. Again, in theory Southwell just needed to get the ball off the field.

But wait, there’s more. Usually, when taking a quick tap, the player would drop the ball onto the foot and regather, effectively restarting the game. The laws even state this is the required way to do it, saying the ball must be ‘kicked a visible distance’, with ‘kick’ being defined as using any part of the leg from the knee downward. Cue much surprise, then, when Southwell restarted the game by bouncing the ball off a thigh and swiftly booting it into touch. After a couple of seconds of confusion in which Alan Symcox dutifully reminded the referee of this particular law, a scrum was awarded to Mansfield, the correct sanction for incorrectly restarting the game.

And so began the final phases where Mansfield took a, legal, tap and go, put a few phases together and then expanded down the wing where Reece Flowers-Lane bowled through the defence to cross the whitewash in the corner and give Mansfield just that little bit of hope. As it stood, at 30-28 to the visitors, the blue-and-whites were still taking away at least 1 losing bonus point. A successful touchline conversion would even up the scores and see both teams take 2 points. But touchline conversions are not easy. Step up Elms, who coolly slotted the ball through the uprights with the final play of the game to end at 30 apiece.

A tough game to be sure but a draw seems like a fair result with both teams struggling to find their groove at various points of the game. Southwell had victory in the bag so may be disappointed with the way the final minutes played out but they will no doubt learn from this as well. Mansfield will need to shore up their discipline in the future but full credit to them for dealing with the pressure of trying to find 7 points with the final play of the game.