Nomads rout Painswick Utd

It spoke volumes of the home side’s ambition when, three minutes in, Lex Brookes ran inside and offloaded in what looked like the makings of a try. Painswick defended well, but it was not enough to deter the Nomads; Harry Phillips took the first of his four tries with a run from the left wing. Over the course of the game, this was where Stroud hit with the most force, emerging from set-pieces to cut through the defence on their opposite flank.

If anything, it was the weather that seemed to be giving Stroud issues. Nathan Taylor had cause for frustration when taking conversions, all too often seeing his efforts batted off course by an unpredictable wind early on in the game.

On the pitch itself, they were ambitious; at times overstretching themselves, in a bid to create gaps in the Painswick defence. However at half-time, Painswick had yet to land a point, but had conceded a plethora of tries from Harry Phillips, Lex Brooks and James Norbury who would go on to take five tries.

Josh Cheyney-Lock, Nathan Taylor and Jordan Phipps all added to the score-line inside the second half alone. Norbury adding to his tally of tries after eight minutes from the restart, whilst Phillips continued to harass the Painswick defence until he was substituted in the 74th minute.

Nathan Taylor and Cory Baker landed eight kicks between them, taking two thirds of the conversions available; by no means a poor showing, considering the aforementioned wind, but an area they can look to improve on next week.

As with any side, there will be areas to improve upon for other parts of the squad too. Whilst dominant in the set-piece, there was the occasional passing error and miss-timed kick to give Painswick a moment’s reprieve. The Nomads also- somewhat crucially -missed out on a clean sheet, conceding a late penalty by the Painswick fly-half.

Overall, though, they will be happy with their performance. On a day that blinded them with the odd burst of sunlight and blew high balls off course, the Nomads showed an intent that Painswick simply could not answer.