6th December 2008 – Mids 5 East (North)
(+ Derbyshire Shield)
Rolls-Royce 23 – 12 Belper
Rolls-Royce got back to winning ways with a comfortable victory over old rivals Belper. This match was played to league rules of 3 subs but doubled as a Derbyshire Shield match in order to ease fixture congestion, both teams ensuring they had 5 FR in the squad of 18.
As predicted before kick off, the match started at a frantic pace, with Belper keen to get stuck in to their old foes after a 2-year wait. It was clear to see the improvement in the quality of the Belper side, which gained promotion from mids 6 to mids 5 last season. The away team started the stronger, hitting rucks aggressively and gaining the upper hand in the contact area. Rolls-Royce dominated the set piece, putting pressure on Belper in the scrum and cleaning up in the lineout. Rolls-Royce continued to think they knew better than the referee at the ruck and gave away a sequence of needless penalties in the opening quarter.
The opening score came from a Belper scrum on the Rolls-Royce 22m line. A fearsome drive from the RR pack wheeled the scrum towards the touchline causing the ball to shoot out the back. This seemed to flummox the RR back line and instead of putting the Belper backs under pressure they were caught on the back foot, allowing the Belper centre to drive through under the posts. The easy conversion was successful RR 0 – 7 Bel.
RR hit straight back with a try of their own. Another great scrum by the pack, this time in the opposition half, put Belper on the back foot. The ball got shovelled wide and the RR pressure defence forced a turnover. Some great hands by McLaughlin, Betty and Burrell setting winger Jardine free on the outside. The cover defence was there in numbers so Jardine slipped a deft inside ball to scrum half Poole, who dummied his man and scurried through in typical rat-like fashion. The tough conversion was missed. RR 5 – 7 Bel.
Belper were not about to lie down however and continued to put the home team under pressure at the breakdown. RR were not working hard enough to secure their ball and Belper were taking advantage with some effective counter rucking. This was being made worse by RR’s lack of discipline. It was a quickly taken penalty on the Belper 10m line which lead to their 2nd try of the match. After some neat interplay between the forwards, Belper kicked through in to the RR 22. The ball bounced in to touch and at that point, lock Malcolm Lee had, what can only be described as, an “out of body experience”. Seemingly believing he was someone of the ability of Shane Williams or Joe Rokocoko, he quickly took the lineout throw to himself, which he duly dropped, the ball bouncing backwards. He then re-gathered and gave a hospital pass to full back Duncan Myres. Myres did his best to rescue the situation, beating the first couple of defenders and spotting centre Betty in midfield, who was in a position to kick to touch. However, Lee was not satisfied with his efforts and decided to intercept this pass from Myres to Betty and this time he successfully knocked it on. Lee then failed to drop on to the bouncing ball, Belper gathered and a couple of passes later had scored out wide. The conversion was missed but this solo calamity of errors put Royces further behind, RR 5 – 12 Bel.
Royces yet again bounced back straight away and took advantage of their dominance in the set piece, this time stealing a lineout near the half way line. Front jumper Dan Sanderson grabbed hold of a low throw from the Belper hooker and slipped the grasp of his opposite number and set foot for the corner flag. He beat the opposition 9 and 11 only to be caught by the full back in the 22. Quick recycled ball got spread wide with a long deep pass cutting out the well drilled rush defence, allowing full back Duncan Myres to go through 2 v 1 on the winger. He drew his man perfectly, putting winger Alec Jardine in for an easy try in the corner. Conversion missed, RR 10 – 12 Belper. RR now realised what was required to get back in to the match, secure phase after phase through being disciplined and aggressive at the ruck and use their superior back line to finish off. A simple strategy which was to pay dividends in the 2nd half.
Royces started positively in the 2nd half, again spreading the ball with confidence that their back line had the measure of their opposite numbers. RR quickly raced in to a lead which they were not to give up. Good rush defence in midfield caused panic in the away team centres with a dropped ball being hacked through firstly by McLaughlin followed up by centre Lawrence Betty. Betty outpaced the cover defence and his footballing skills knocking the ball in to the Belper in-goal area. He seemed to over-run his kick however and dived desperately to his side to attempt to touch the ball down. It was unclear whether he got the necessary downward pressure to claim the try, so full back Duncan Myres dived on the ball to make sure of the score. The referee showed good fitness and was on hand to award the try to Myres. This was confirmed by prop Ranft who was also right up with play and clearly saw Myres make the scoring touch down. McLaughlin found his kicking boots and slotted the tough conversion. RR 17 – 12 Bel.
RR continued to pressurise Belper in the 3rd quarter and the away team began to give away penalties in their 22. McLaughlin slotted 2 of these to take the score to RR 23 – 12 Bel. The rest of the 2nd half was closed out by RR, who kept possession well and resisted the temptation to get in to a hand-bag duel with the away team who decided to take out their frustration with plenty of cheap shots off the ball.
Final Score Rolls-Royce 23 – 12 Belper.
A deserved win for the home team who hold their position of joint 2nd in the league and progress to the next round of the Derbyshire Shield, looking to regain the title they won 2 season ago.
Team: Myres (8), Peacock (7), Betty (8), Burrell (7), Jardine (8), McLaughlin (7), Poole (8), Ranft (6), Leonard (7), King MoM (8), Taylor (8), Lee (6), Daigneault (7), Gill (7), Sanderson (8). Subs: Noble (7) (for Leonard 30 mins), Pelly (7) (for Noble 50 mins), Gormley (not used)