After last week’s heroic comeback away to take the spoils at Notts Corsairs this was a far more routine affair with Derby eventually running out 34-12 winners, albeit against a much depleted Moderns outfit.
Both teams struggled to hold onto the ball in the opening encounters, but Derby finally clicked into gear with a neat pass from centre Tom Pickering allowing fullback Harry Cook to put centre Archie Murdock over in the corner. Cook nonchalantly bisected the posts with the conversion.
Next, giant second-row Archie Partridge was put through a hole and showed pace, power and dexterity to dot the ball down on the line despite a brave effort to stop him by the Moderns fullback. This time Murdock converted for 14-0.
Quick simple passing down the line then put Cook in space to outpace the defence and score Derby’s third try for a 19-0 halftime lead.
The second half began with a Derby error which Moderns capitalised on to hack through and score a converted try under the posts.
Derby however were in no mood to let Moderns back into the game. First, Archie Partridge picked up from an uncontested scrum and set off up the righthand touchline before offloading to the ever-hard running Hooker Andrew Harriot to crash over for a fourth try. The fifth came courtesy of a long-range burst through the centre from Murdock with the ball eventually passed to winger Fran Town to score. To wrap things up jubilant fullback turned flanker Joe Bennet scored after a sweeping move that started in Derby’s own half.
There was just time for Moderns to score a consolation try after some weak tackling from Derby.
A comfortable win for Derby, but the return fixture in the cup in three weeks’ time promises to be a much sterner challenge.