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North Derbyshire 15 – Droitwich 18

Monday, September 19, 2005

Droitwich safely negotiated a passage into the 2nd round of the Powergen Junior Vase on Saturday with a hard fought win at Chesterfield-based North Derbyshire RFC.

The very small, sloping pitch hampered Droitwich’s free running style, but they turned in a workman like performance with outside half Matt Blackmore providing all of the points courtesy of his reliable left boot.

Hesitation by the visitors enabled North to score an early breakaway try. By this time Droitwich had already lost lock Tony Way to a broken finger injury on his return to the team. The visitors then upped their work rate and hit back through a Blackmore penalty and drop goal which concluded the scoring for the first half.

In the second period Droitwich increased their work rate with forwards Jon Andrews and Matt Jupp impressing. Good forward work enabled young replacement, James Shewell, to force his way over, but the referee was unsighted and disallowed the effort. Blackmore kept the scoreboard ticking over with two more penalties.

The home side then scored again to keep the pressure on Droitwich, but Blackmore converted another penalty and a further drop-goal to edge the visitors ahead. The last few minutes were frantic as North threw everything at the Droitwich line. Droitwich Full-back, Will Bolton, produced one superb, try-saving tackle, which unfortunately resulted in him having to leave the pitch with heavy concussion. North’s final effort was repelled by Ben Cottrell and Jamie Faulkener to see the Spa side hang on.

Droitwich will play much better than this this season, but will be happy to remain in the Vase.

Photos from Saturday's victory are now online.

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