Derby travelled to Liberty Lane to take on Nuneaton in a clash of teams losing their opening two games. McGrath van Wyk and Josh Roberts both made their 1st appearances of the season.
Derby kicked off in torrential rain with thunder and lightning crashing and flashing around the ground!
Nuneaton started well and took the lead after just 4 minutes with a try.
Nuneaton then lost the ball over the Derby try line before scoring their 2nd try after 13 minutes. The conversion put them 12 points ahead.
Nuneaton lost a player to the sin bin on 23 minutes.
Derby were struggling to get a foothold in the game but McGrath Van Wyk struck after 30 minutes by scoring in the corner. A superb conversion by Josh Bingham took Derby to within 5 points.
This proved to be the half-time score.
It took Nuneaton just 2 minutes to open their account in the 2nd half with a converted try.
A scuffle on 49 minutes saw both sides lose a player to the sin bin with Jim Hather the Derby player dispatched.
9 minutes later, Nuneaton lost another player to the sin bin and Josh Bingham kicked the resultant penalty.
Josh Bingham kicked another penalty after 63 minutes to bring Derby to within 6 points. Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for Derby.
Nuneaton scored a converted try with 12 minutes remaining before Jim Hather received a yellow card. As it was his 2nd yellow card it meant a red card and Derby had to play the rest of the game with 14 men.
5 minutes remained when Derby attempted to play out from their own line. A pass was intercepted and Nuneaton strolled in for the try. The conversion was a formality and completed the scoring.
This was an improved performance from Derby but it is now 3 defeats in a row.
It doesn’t get any easier next week when leaders Stourbridge come to Haslams.
Come on Derby!
Report by: R. Bambra