Belper overcome a strong East Leake

Belper welcomed table toppers East Leake; sound in the knowledge that this was going to be a difficult and challenging task. East Leake are a much changed side to last season and arrived wanting to avenge the 41 -10 defeat instilled on them in this same fixture last year.

Belper had a number of changes from the previous week due predominantly to Swine and Man flu respectively. A contingent of the team that turned up was also suffering with either the aftermath or the early onset of these illnesses. However after a brief team talk with Coach Barden, there seemed to be a focus and a desire to take this game to East Leake regardless of any ailments.

Belper received the ball from the kick off and took the game straight to the visitors. Watson received and charged into the oncoming forwards, with tight support from Hayward and Emslie, Belper pressured Leake and battled hard, Holmes and Yates had the fringes covered so well a gnat could not get through. It was evident from the start that Leake's forwards would be no pushover and with their significant weight advantage they managed to disrupt and slow down what should have been secure and quick Belper ball.

Naylor put in a sterling performance as he guided the forwards through some fantastic phase play and when needed he shipped the ball into the quick hands of Meakin, who along with the rest of the backs, pressured the East Leake lines and made plenty of ground. It seemed as though Belper had the upper hand in this half as the continued to peg Leake back in their half. It was only through some last ditch defending and good counterattacking that Leake were able to keep Belper from crossing the line.

It was Leake against the run of play who opened up the scoring, from a Belper clearance Leake released their backline on the Belper defence and were thwarted by some tremendous work from Blount and O'Gorman, somewhere in amongst this barrage East Leake were gifted a penalty in front of the posts which took the score to 3-0. Belper knew this was against the run of play and didn't let their heads drop, from the kick off Belper responded resolutely pushing Leake into their 22, excellent defending from Leake prevented Belper from crossing the line on several occasions, however they could only hold out for so long.

After a great run from England, Inns secured the ball as the ruck formed, Naylor released a quick ball to Captain Dakin, forced and pirouetted his way through the defence to score to the side to the sticks. Blount duly converted to make it 7-3

From the kick off Belper forced there way forward again and continued to hammer East Leake, Wilson took the ball on and despite his size needed several players to take down, this left space in the Leake defence, which a sublime pass from Naylor found the oncoming arms of Hayward, who had decided he was not going to get held up this week. Blount converted 14-3. Just prior to half time Leake pushed into the Belper 22, Ross smashed the visiting winger to save a certain try, however somehow as he tried to rip the ball he was adjudged to knock on.

From the scrum Leake were then able to create a platform where their forwards were able to push over and convert to bring the score to 14-10.

Half time was called and Belper felt that they had the beating of Leake. Leake however had other ideas. The second Half was similar to the first half with both sides battling for territory. Excellent attacking and defending from both sides created an exciting stalemate for most of the half. With 20 minutes to go Belper were awarded a penalty for a Leake player going off his feet at a ruck, Blount took the points. Leake sensed they could salvage something and what ensued was a frenetic 10 minutes, where Leake threw everything they could at the Belper defence, Leake's skipper managed to cross the line to bring the score to 17-15. Belper held firm for the last few nail biting minutes and breathed a sigh of relief as the final whistle was blown.

All in all a fantastic result for Belper against a strong East Leake side. Belper should have had the game sewn up in the first half, however Leake were never going to make it too easy and pushed Belper til the very end. Next week Belper travel to East Retford in the League.