In a match where the lead changed several times, it was the Students who came out on top in the last quarter.
Both teams opted for high velocity open play as storm Ciara gathered pace, and it was Otley that had the first chance of points. The Students were caught offside after 3 minutes, but the attempt shaved the wrong side of the posts. Loughborough took the lead 5 minutes later initially having being held up over the line, from the scrum moved the ball to the other side of the posts where Finlay McBrearty went over, Tom Ffitch converting.
It didn’t take Otley long to level things up, getting the ball back after the restart and then Loughborough were penalised for not rolling away. Brett Mitchell took the ball in the line out and from this Adam Malthouse crashed over, Ben Smith adding the two extra points.
Otley took the lead after a team effort which ended with Marco Dallavalle passing the ball to Ben Magee outside the Students’ 22, the full back fending off tackles to score. Two converted tries from Charlie Hudson and Will Attfield gave the home side the lead, but just before the end of the first half a 20 metre rolling maul ended with Freddie Watson touching down to level things up.
The Students opened up a 12 point lead within the first ten minutes of the second half with tries from Fergus Guiry and Sam O’Leary-Blade. Again, Otley were not to be deterred and were initially awarded a penalty try. Then the Students brought down a scrum just outside their 22. From the line out on the left-hand side, another rolling maul saw Joe Graham’s try balance the score at 33-33.
Loughborough took the lead again with a converted try from Jonathan Mason with 7 minutes to go. Otley again tried to restore parity, but a 30 metre run by Charlie Hudson put Otley on the back foot. They tried to hold back the Students, but his team mates gave the ball back to Hudson who went over to deny Otley a losing bonus point with two minutes to go.