The Nuns were on the road for the first time in 2025 as they travelled to Leicestershire to take on unbeaten league leaders Syston. It was a changed team for the Nuns with Ben Dawes, James Lloyd, Zeb Gibson, Tobias Trafford, Tom Eales and Ben Kirby all coming in to the side and Joe Franklin and Charlie Smith coming onto the bench. The Nuns new they would be in for a stern test but they gave as good as they got for large parts but Syston took the game away in the end to run out 33-19 winners. Nun’s three tries came from Martin Wood, Travis Bennett-Allcock and Tak Chawadya, Lucas Brindley and Bennett-Allcock added two conversions.

On a heavy pitch the Nuns kicked off and from the start it was obvious that Syston were looking to keep the ball in hand as much as possible.

The Nuns defence was being tested but stood up to the challenge. The Nuns also started to retain some possession and created problems for the home side.

It was the Nuns that opened the scoring in the 18th minute. After some forward forays and the back s linking in well, Wood broke the defensive line to run through and under the posts. Bennett-Allcock chipped over a drop goal conversion to give the Nuns a 0-7 lead after 18 minutes.

Syston were not put off and they continued to threaten and in the 29th minute they got themselves on the score board with a break down the touchline and score in the corner which went unconverted, 5-7.

As the game continued both sides pressed each other between the 22m lines but it was the Nuns that scored next, just before half time. After testing the home defence and maintaining possession, another attack down the short side saw Wood offload to Bennett-Allcock to score. Brindley’s conversion took the score to 5-14 on the half time whistle.

The second half got off to the worst possible start for the Nuns. Syston kicked off deep and when gathered the clearance kick was charged down allowing the hosts to score near the posts to bring them straight back into the game at 12-14 after 41 minutes.

Back came the Nuns though and they extended their lead on the 50th minute. Chawadya received the ball on the touch line 10m out and produced a delicate finish in the corner despite the best efforts of two defenders. Brindley’s conversion went wide with the score now 12-19.
Syston then showed why they are top of the league and still unbeaten. They picked up the tempo and scored two tries in quick succession after 54 and 58 minutes both with converted. They kept possession for long periods of play and as well as the nuns defence stood firm they couldn’t hold out moving the score to 26-19.

As the clocked ticked by both sides pushed each other and the Nuns knew that another score could bring the scores level.

However, in the 79th minute Syston got a 5th try to take the score to 33-19 and the Nuns were now out of range for a bonus point. They knew that they had to get the ball back from the kick off to score a try which potentially could earn them 2 bonus points but the hosts secured the kick off before running the clock to finish the game.

A defeat that, on paper, doesn’t reflect the effort from the side and how close they ran the league leaders. With a number of changes in the side the players put in a much improved performance from the previous game and know that they must carry this on for the remainder of the season.

There was a fine bonus point win for the Saxons at home against Lichfield winning 38-19.

After the match, head coach Huw Thomas’s added “Some fine details and a couple of inaccuracies have made that score line look different to watching the match play out. The players put in a huge effort today and we are gutted to not come away with some league points which we fully deserved. Syston showed us that playing error free rugby is very effective and we must strive to keep improving and then the results will come. Some new players in the squad all did well and now we must use the next two weeks to prepare well for some more big games coming up.”

1 James Redman 2 Louis Addleton 3 Ben Dawes 4 Ben Haywood 5 Tom Aherne 6 James Lloyd 7 Zeb Gibson 8 Martin Wood 9 Tobias Trafford 10 Lucas Brindley 11 Travis Bennett-Allcock 12 Ryan Preston 13 Ben Kirby 14 Tak Chawadya 15 Mike Volaikisuva; 16 Jack Iles 17 Joe Franklin 18 Charlie Smith