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Exeter on winning ways after thrilling day in Nottingham
The University National Touch Series returned with a bang this weekend with a day of thrilling action which belied the freezing temperatures and strong wind which swept across the University of Nottingham’s Riverside Sports Complex.
Twenty-two teams from 14 universities descended on the Midlands, with the teams divided into Cup, Plate and Bowl competitions based on their seedings from the pre-Christmas regional tournaments.
Given the seeding of the competitions you would have expected there to be tight matches, and so it proved, with only nine matches out of the 39 played across all of the pool stages being decided by four tries or more.
The rest were all nip-and-tuck affairs, with Exeter 1 drawing with Cardiff in their first game, Nottingham Trent showing they belonged at this level in Pool A, and Bath Hawks setting the early pace in Pool B.
The quarter finals were also tense, with Cardiff seeing off Exeter 2 5-4, and Loughborough 1 scoring the deciding try against Durham 1 in 3-v-3 extra time.
But that was nothing compared to the semi-finals, where Cardiff could not repeat their heroics from Surrey Sports Park last time out, losing 4-3 to Exeter 1, and Loughborough 1 using the momentum from the quarter final to knock out Bath 1 2-1.
However the final belonged to Exeter 1, who repeated their victory over Loughborough 1 from the morning’s pool stages to win 4-1 and take home the coveted Cup.
The Plate went to Bristol, who backed up their two wins and a draw from the morning by overcoming Loughborough 2, Bath 2 and then Surrey 4-3 in the final. Plenty of credit goes to Surrey, though, who have come on in leaps and bounds so far this season.
The Bowl belonged to Oxford Brookes, after a final against Leeds 2 which provided plenty of entertainment by going into 3-v-3 extra time after the scores were tied at 1-1 after both full-time and then the two minutes of extra time.
Both teams also had walk-off tries notched off, before Oxford kept their composure to go over the whitewash when it mattered most.
CLICK HERE to see the full list of results.
Some notable stats from the weekend.
Bath 1 became the first team to score 100 tries, with Exeter 1 close behind on 97. And while Loughborough 1 have had their matches reduced by cancelled tournaments in the autumn semester, they are very competitive in terms of tries scored per game at 4.83.
On an individual level Bristol’s Lloyd Prytherch is having a season to remember, backing up his 11 tries in Round 1 to score a University NTS record 12 tries in Nottingham, his tally of 31 some 10 ahead of his brother, Steffan, in second place.
Congratulations, too, to Isobel Hobson (Birmingham) and Ben Grinter (Nottingham Trent) for being Saturday’s MVPs.
Bookings are now open for both Rounds 4 (Sat 05/03/22) and 5 (Sat 26/03/22), which will both be hosted at the Riverside Sports Complex in Nottingham. To confirm your team’s place log into your online membership account by CLICKING HERE!
