Nottingham edged out by Melrose in British & Irish Cup

Delaney's Nottingham side look unlikely to qualify from Pool B

Nottingham lost their second home game in a row in the British and Irish Cup on Sunday, going down 29-31 to Melrose.

The defeat sees the Green & Whites slip to fifth in Pool B and severely dents their qualification hopes, as only the top two will make the quarter-finals.

Director of rugby Glenn Delaney told BBC Radio Nottingham: "We kept getting into the areas to score.

"But our ability and composure to convert territory and possession into points was lacking."

Delaney, who rotated his squad ahead of Tuesday night's home Championship match with Rotherham, added: "I think that some of the options we took were clearly the wrong ones.

"You would certainly feel with that amount of ball in attacking areas you would probably have more points on the scoreboard."

We've lost our two home games, and that's unacceptable

Glenn Delaney

Delaney's side - who were edged out by Munster last week - have now dropped to fifth in Pool B, with only the top two making the quarter-finals.

It was a subdued Meadow Lane as only 931 fans watched Nottingham's third pool B game compared with the record attendance against Munster, who now top the group from second-place Llanelli.

"The running is with them [Munster and Llanelli]," Delaney said.

"I thought we started this competition well with a good away win at Bristol and then a narrow loss last week against Munster. We've lost our two home games, and that's unacceptable.

"The final two games now are very much at the end of the season so we will head off and concentrate back on our league rugby."

Nottingham were never in front, but showed early promise as David Marshall missed an early penalty and then knocked on when a try seemed inevitable.

But Melrose started to exploit frailties in the Green & Whites defence and winger David McColl touched down. Scott Wight missed the conversion but added three points moments later.

The home team finally scored as hooker Stuart Philpott finished off a great team move but Melrose extended their lead again through another penalty.

The visitors then found themselves down to 13 men through persistent infringements. Nottingham failed to capitalise as although Philpott went over again after a dominant rolling maul, Fraser Thomson raced through a shaky defence and Wight converted.

Melrose regained full-strength, but lost hooker Wayne Mitchell just before half-time through yet more persistent fouling.

A fourth card of the game was then shown to Nottingham's half-time substitute Neil Fowkes. The visitors, unlike Nottingham, made this numerical advantage count as Wight kicked two more penalties and converted a John Dalziel try.

Cesar Sempere then switched from full-back to fly-half and nearly orchestrated an unlikely Nottingham victory. The Spanish international set up tries for stand-in captain Phil Eggleshaw, winger Sam Wood and Fowkes.

Sempere added two of the three conversions and also had a try of his own disallowed for double-movement as Nottingham pressed in the closing stages but could not quite complete the comeback.

The Green & Whites did earn two bonus-points but must rely on other results if they are to progress to the quarter-finals.