Belper 2nd XV versus Melbourne 2nd XV

The Mighty Belper 2nd XV all bleary eyed and grumpy, after having to wake up before midday on a bleak Sunday morning, headed north toward Matlock and the final of the Derbyshire President's Shield.

After a brisk warm up to shake off the cobwebs Belper were ready to go, and go they did. Within the first few minutes a horrendous mistake from the Melbourne 10 saw the ball bobbling over the try line and Irish whippet Byran O'Garam sped in to ground the ball and give Belper their first 5 points. Emslie confidently converted with a trick shot off the post to up the lead to 7 points.

It looked as though the fragile Belper lead may have been lost when Melbourne came straight back at the leaders by trying the same move, luckily Belper grounded the ball first. Not to be phased by the pressure, Belper put in an amazing period of defensive play to gradually push the attackers back. However Melbourne were afforded a second chance to make back some ground with a penalty awarded in their favour, despite a mammoth high tackle on the Enforcer Eddie Watson. Melbourne decided to go for goal, luckily again for Belper the penalty kick almost reached the corner flag rather than the goal and landed into the waiting arms of Joe Blackwell. Thinking quickly Blackwell dashed up the wing drawing the full might of Melbourne's defence; a quick cheeky chip from Blackwell's third leg sent the ball sailing over the heads of the oncoming hoard. Bryan O'Garam dashed after the ball and collected it perfectly. Unfortunately the full-back was there to stop him this time allowing Melbourne time to rally their defence and deny Belper the chance to gain points from this sudden burst of champagne rugby.

It wasn't long before Belper were at it again through skipper Nicholson who, from the far side of the pitch lofted the ball high in the air across the entire width of the pitch to land a gift of a ball for winger Rod Van Cann. With the speed of a million motorcycles Rod collected the ball effortlessly and took the ball deep into the Melbourne half and almost scored, instead he selflessly passed the ball to the oncoming support. The Touch Judge was so enthralled by the moves that Belper were pulling out that he ran straight into the 22 metre flag and was sent flying. This was unfortunate for the incapacitated official as this meant he missed the trade mark running of Andy Laven, dancing his way through the Melbourne defence. Acting as Fred Astaire to Laven's Ginger Rodgers, Bryan O'Garam was there on his shoulder to take the pass and score his second try of the day. Emslie once more sailed the ball through the uprights to make it 14-0.

Belper carried on the onslaught with a relentless barrage of aerial bombardments. The backs with their Bostick hands plucking the balls out of their air and pulling off some excellent moves to expose holes in the opposition's defence. The forwards not to be outdone put in the hard work with crunching tackles, rolling mauls and supporting runs that saw Chris Endacott almost put another score on the board.

Half time came and little needed to be said, only a few encouraging words from the sideline. A quick change to the line, with Blount coming on for Endacott and Ross swapping places with Rod on the wing, and Belper were ready to go again.

Carrying on with more of the same, the continuing hard work was awarded with a penalty and the decision was made to go for goal. Despite his best efforts Emslie failed to convert an ambitious kick from almost the half way line. Another quick change to the front row brought Tony Laven on for Andy Ryan. Melbourne counted with attacks of their own, but once again Belper held the line. Tired of defending Belper forced play back up the field with Andy Laven scoring a try, combined with Emslie's conversion the score now stood at 21-0. During the move Captain Nicholson looked about to score but was bent double by the Melbourne defence. It looked like he'd have to be carried off the pitch, but he refused to leave the pitch, jumped up (accompanied by a sound a bit like a bag of marbles coming from his neck), dusted himself down and combed his eyebrow ready to go again. Another change and Morgan "O'Beast" Day came on for the battling Andy York.

With twenty minutes left the combined forces of Mark "Bullet" Taylor and Andy Barrow bought play to a sudden halt. An unfortunate tackle saw one of the Melbourne players go down with a suspected broken ankle. The teams went back to the changing rooms to keep warm until an ambulance could take the injured player to hospital.

After 15 minutes play was allowed to continue. With much of the same play from both sides, Minutes later the heroic Captain used his wibbly wobbly neck to sell the Melbourne defence a dummy, diving over the line Nicholson not only scored Belper's final try but snapped his neck back into place, so all was right with the world.

After a tremendous all round team performance the final score 26-0 and Belper had reclaimed the shield. The performance from the second fifteen over the past few weeks has proved that they'll be unstoppable next season.