Valley Cougars moved up to second in the National Conference South following a dramatic 22-24 win in Nottingham on Saturday August 2.
The Cougars travelled with five players making their Conference debuts – Stefan Jones, who was man of the match, Clive Robinson, Luke Price, Lloyd Collins and Jamie Marsh.
The Penallta club scored five fabulous tries but not before Nottingham Outlawx had taken the lead through Paul Calland that Matt Shields converted.
The Welsh levelled with a long range effort when Lee Goddard made a dash down the line to put Chris Speck away to score. Goddard’s kick made the score six all.
The second try came from Goddard’s skills again, with a pin point kick gathered by Mike Hurley and flicked to Jamie Marsh before Adam Morgan crashed over from short range for Goddard to convert.
Nottingham pulled a try back after a good passing move set Jimmy Goodwin up.
An individual effort from Cougars’ Ian Newbury who collected a kick before running the full length to score and make it 20-10 to the Welsh at the break.
Nottingham fought back in the second half and tries from Goodwin and Adrian Chima, both converted by Shields, gave them a 22-20 lead late into the match.
The winner came just minutes from the end. It was a great move down the left hand side that saw a bullet pass from Goddard to Ben Burgess to score.
Cougars coach Paul Emanuelli said: “I’m so proud of the boys today, we really did play well for almost the whole 80 minutes. Their attitude was brilliant and they got the win that they deserved.”