DERBY ensured they ended their season on a high – by retaining the Derbyshire Cup in dramatic style.
With the scores level, a Tom Taylor-Dawes try from the last play of the game, with a 20-metre run down the touchline, gave them a 22-17 victory over Matlock at Chesterfield RFC on Monday.
Roxy Fearon’s much-changed side followed up the weekend semi-final success against Bakewell Mannerians to provide the club with consolation for their Midlands One play-off final defeat at Burton.
Jamie Twigg bagged a couple of tries for Derby, with University of Derby student Dan Hay – making his debut in the second row – also touching down.
George Castledine kicked one conversion.
Matlock’s tries came from Dan Hooton, Luke Howard and Jack Ritchie, with Henri Packard converting one of them.
“The performance wasn’t brilliant but, again, we did enough to get over the line,” said head coach Fearon.
“We had 10 players in the team who didn’t start the season in the side, so in that respect, it was a great effort.
“We took the lead and dominated the first half.
“We kept the ball well but lack a bit of penetration.
“We were winning at half-time but then fell off the pace a bit after the break.
“They came back into it and scored a couple of nice tries to leave us 17-12 down.
“Then we managed to regather ourselves, create a bit of pressure and got the win in the end.
“Tom Taylor-Dawes was outstanding again and won the game for us.”
Fearon added: “We can say we’re the best team in Derbyshire again, which is really good.
“At the start of the season, if you’d said we would finish runners-up in the league and win the Derbyshire Cup, I think we would have taken that.
“We would have loved to win the NLD Cup too but we just ran out of Saturdays to be able to compete in that.
“The injuries have been really difficult to absorb, so we’re very, very pleased to have ended the season with some silverware.”
Having made his senior debut against Bakewell, Trent College student Ben Trembling retained his place – one of three Colts in the Derby side.
The likes of Sam Thompson, Sam Goosey, Josh Gundry and Craig Hughes also featured.
Meanwhile, winger Ryan Manning announced he was playing his final game for the club.
“He’s finding it hard due to work commitments,” said Fearon.
“We’re hoping he might reconsider at some point, as he’s been a fantastic servant to the club.”
Derby missed out on another piece of silverware as they were beaten 26-13 by Ashbourne in the 2nd XV Cup.
Amber Valley edged out Chesterfield Panthers 18-15 to win the Derbyshire Shield.
Chesterfield’s second team were triumphant in the President’s Shield, seeing off Castle Donington 28-24.
Article source: http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/Ankle-injury-rules-Bath-Rugby-flanker-Matt-Garvey/story-21029187-detail/story.html
Rugby union: Derby retain Derbyshire Cup against Matlock in dramatic end to ...
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