Belper 1st XV 34 v Melbourne 1st XV 5

Saturday saw the meeting of old rivals Belper and Melbourne, with Belper wanting revenge for last season's cup semi final exit at the hands of Melbourne.

Belper started the stronger of the two teams with the ball being moved well between the forwards and backs, Belper had the majority of possession for the first 20 minutes with Nick Coombes scoring following excellent running in the backs from Blackwell and S Teager. Teager and Coombes exchanged passes as Coombes darted in to score his first try of the season in the right hand corner. Dymond slotted from the angle to give Belper a 7-0 lead.

Moments later Belper regained possession from the Melbourne kick and ran the ball back at the visitors defence, to be awarded a penalty which Dymond gladly kicked.

Melbourne started to get back into the game with their fly half kicking well and gaining ground, Belper had to be at their best with the Melbourne forwards rucking and mauling well. Belpers forwards defended excellently with B Coombes, Gratton, Hayward and Holmes tackling hard and keeping the maul from being over run by the Melbourne attack

With minutes of the half left Belper scored their second try following a switch in the middle of the park with Boon popping the ball to Holmes who avoided the attentions of 2 defenders to pop the ball back, Joe Teager picked the ball up, spinning out of the first tackle then running in from 22 yards out. Dymond then continued his excellent kicking display by kicking the conversion.

This score seemed to anger the Melbourne team and they threw everthing at Belper, Belpers defence stood firm but with minutes of the half left they conceeded a penalty which the Melbourne forwards took on and their blind side flanker crashed over to score in the corner.

Belper went into half time leading 17-5

Following a few words of motivation from skipper Gratton, Belper came out in the second half wanting to score more, it was however Melbourne who came out the strongest with their forwards keeping possession and camping in Belper's 22 for long spells, but with Man of the Match England tackling everything that moved and Inns crunching into the tackle, Belper prevented the Melbourne attack from crossing the line.

With 20 minutes remaining Gratton went over with a calf strain and was replaced by youngster Gray, making his Belper debut on the wing . Belpers pack had to reshuffle with Hayward moving into the front row and N Coombes moving from centre to Flanker. Following the change around A Laven picked up from the back of the scrum charged 30 meters down the blind, popped the ball to S Teager who then returned the ball to Laven who scored in the corner only for the Ref to return play to the visitors 22 where the ball was adjudged to have travelled forwards in the pass.

Belper won the scrum and then won a penalty which Dymond slotted to give Belper a 20-5 lead.

Melbourne again came back strong and following 5 minutes of solid pressure on the Belper line the ref sin binned A Laven for aledgedly killing the ball in the tackle, so for the next 10 minutes of the match Belper were down to 14 men.

During this time Melbourne continued to pressure, but following a great tackle from Teager in the centers the ball was spilled close to the line, Gray picked up the ball and ran in a try from 70 metres out, Dymond converted.

For the next 5 minutes Belper defended with everything, then following a win in the line from Adams the ball was popped to England who sprinted 20 yards popping the ball to Holmes who took the ball into contact, Laven picked up at scrum half and weaved through 3 tackles to run in an excellent individual try from the half way. Dymond converted and the ref belw his whistle to give Belper a hard yet deserved victory 34-5.

Belpers 2nds were unlucky to finish 24-22 runners up to Ashfield Swans

Belper 3rds were miss-matched against Melbourne 2nds and lost 0-45.