Cambridge Rugby Club close to ending RFU Championship duck during narrow loss at Nottingham

Cambridge came agonisingly close to landing their first victory as a RFU Championship club on Friday night.

Richie Williams’ side made the trip to Nottingham having lost all five of their matches since being promoted from the National League at the end of the previous campaign. And that has now grown to six without a win after they went down narrowly 22-19 on a bitterly cold evening at Lady Bay.

Cambridge raced out of the traps and were 12 points to the good inside the opening six minutes courtesy of tries from Elias Caven and Sam Hanks, one of which Jamie Benson converted.

The hosts then responded with three tries – two converted – to take the lead, only for Cambridge to wrestle back the ascendancy going into the interval after Sam Edwards went over against his former club.

The resultant kick from Benson was good, but that proved to be the end of Cambridge’s scoring, meaning that they had no response to Jack Dickinson’s unconverted try in the 46th minute.

The defeat saw Cambridge drop to the bottom of the table, with previous basement side London Scottish chalking up a surprise win over leaders Ealing Trailfinders.

Cambridge will host Coventry on Saturday (December 9).