Belper 1st XV 22 v Melbourne 1st XV 11

Belper welcomed Melbourne back to the Strutt's pitch for the 2nd time this season, following Belper's 34-5 win in the cup they were in a confident mood.

Melbourne started the brighter with their forwards driving hard into the Belper line but with Gratton and B Coombes back the tackles were soon bringing the Melbourne attack to an end.

Belper opened the scoring with a penalty wide on the right with Dymond stepping up and slotting, moments later Melbourne were pushing again and Belper were adjudged to have handled the ball on the ground, the penalty was awarded and slotted by Melbourne's fly-half, 3-3.

Belper almost the scored when slick passing in the backs opened up a gap with N Coombes popping the ball back into Blackwell who was tackled just short of the try line.

Despite Melbourne continuing to pile on the pressure, some of their handling for the finish was lacking and Belper stole the ball on a couple of occasions, Belper started to get into the game with Gratton taking the ball on from a penalty but isolating himself with his diagonal run, but as the ball went to ground the ball was won back Dymond who dummied the whole of Melbourne back row to steal in under the posts. He then slotted to take Belper in 10-3 at the half.

The second half started with Belper going at Melbourne and pressing deep into their 22 but poor handling in the forwards saw Melbourne steal the ball and drive up field deep into Belper's half, a ball spun out to the centres saw Melbourne's centre drive through the centres and score right of the posts, the conversion was missed.

Moments later Melbourne attacked again and a fine tackle from Gratton saw the Melbourne attack break down but handling on the ground from Belper conceded a penalty in front of the posts, which was duly taken, 10-11

Belper replied immediately from the kick off with B Coombes chasing the kick off down and beating the opposition to the ball, flicking it back to Dakin who took the ball into contact. Naylor spun the ball out to the backs who move it ball out wide with N Coombes outpacing the defence and stepping inside the full back and feeding Blake who had sprinted from the opposite wing to charge past 2 defenders and score under the posts, Dymond slotted the conversion to give Belper a 17-11 lead.

Belper's man off the match Blackwell was awsome in the last 20 minutes tackling 3 times when tries seemed certain and bringing the ball back from his 22 on a couple of occasions and returning deep into Melbourne's half, Following a run from Blackwell which ended in a high tackle, Naylor took a quick penalty and sprinted from half way deep into Melbourne's 22 and popped the ball out to Shepherd who dived over the line to score in the corner.

The game finished as Dymond missed the conversion to give Belper a hard fought 22-11 victory.

Gratton commented, "following 5 straight wins Belper are looking like possible title contenders"