Saturday saw the arrival of 2nd placed Rolls Royce to Strutts playing fields for a possible decider in the seasons promotion battle for 2nd place.

Royces at the start of the day were 2 points clear and 150+ points ahead of Belper so Belper desperately needed a win.

Belper welcomed back Steve Diamond, Tony England and Matt Omarato the team, following injury and work commitments hampering their availability, Despite the changes to the team Belper seemed pretty solid from the start if not a little hesitant at times with Rolls Royce bossing long periods of the play. Belper's tackling was superb though, with forwards and backs doing their all to halt the Royce's attack. It was Royces who opened the scoring from in front of the clubhouse following a high tackle in the centre of the park the Royce's 10 slotted the penalty.

Belper replied with a penalty of their own following good running from England, feeding to Holmes who was tackled setting up the ruck, hands were spotted on the floor by the ref and the penalty was given, Blount stepped up and slotted from the angle!

The trusty boot from hand of Dymond kept clearing danger deep back into the Royce's half and it was a clever kick through from Dymond that set up the opening for Belpers try, the ball was won by Adams in the line out and popped to Blackwell who spun the ball wide to Dymond who kicked to the left wing and as the ball bounced Bennion hit the ball, knocking his opposite no out of the way, he then set off for the corner and as the full back came across to tackle he stepped inside drawing his man, creating space outside him and popped the ball out to Blake who sprinted in to score just left of the posts. Blount converted to give Belper a 10-3 lead.

The visitors were not going to lie down, they came back at Belper with wave after wave of attack which Belper dealt with, with Blount and Holmes tackling hard and Blackwell ferreting about recycling the ball.

Royces broke Belper's defence with minutes of the half remaining, the ball appearing to be held in a maul Belper's defence opened up and a Royces player stepped through a hole in the maul with ball and sprinted 20 meters popping to his support player who avoided the on-rushing Dymond to score in the corner. The conversion was missed and also an attempted penalty from Royces came back off the upright which would have made the game 11-10 in favour of the visitors.

At half time Belper led 10-8

The second half saw Belper this time dominate for long periods with Blake boshing holes in the visitor's line and Lewis making massive inroads into the visitor's half like a man trying to prove a point. Belper came close to scoring again following a powerful drive from the forwards from a scrum but the pick up and drive was defended against well and a penalty was given when Tennick wandered offside attempting to charge down the clearance.

Belper looked to have won it with the last play of the match as time was up but Royces were to win a penalty following Belper handling on the floor just out side their own 10 meter line, Royce's 10 kicked towards the posts and the ball seemed to take an age to drop but fell just short where Blackwell caught and cleared it to touch to finish the game and see Belper join Royces on the same points with just points difference seperating them.

Belper are now back in with a chance with 6 games remaining but as Coach Barden said we have to do things one match at a time and not think of the final prize until its winnable.