Derby travelled to Bridgnorth, knowing a tough task lay ahead. Jeri Oldfield and Sam Pittman returned to the side, while Lachie Phillips made his debut from the bench. Tom Antrobus ran out, in the sunshine, for his 50th appearance !
Derby started well and Josh Bingham kicked them into the lead, after 5 minutes.
15 minutes later, Derby scored the 1st try of the game. McGrath Van Wyk received the ball and made ground. He chipped through and Lewis Hancock won the race to touch down. Josh Bingham kicked a fine conversion, to put Derby 10 points clear.
Derby were controlling the game at this point, but that all changed on the 26th minute when Josh Bingham was shown a red card for a tip tackle.
3 minutes later, Bridgnorth were penalised and had a player sent to the sin bin. Lewis Hancock extended Derby’s lead, with a successful penalty.
Derby were finding it increasingly difficult to keep Bridgnorth at bay, and 2 Bridgnorth tries in the final 10 minutes of the half left the scoreboard showing Derby ahead 13 – 10 at the interval.
Derby knew they were in for a tough 2nd half, playing against an extra man.
It started badly with a converted Bridgnorth try after just 3 minutes, giving them the lead.
A Lewis Hancock penalty, after 48 minutes narrowed the gap, but another Bridgnorth try, with 16 minutes left, put them 6 points clear.
Incredibly, as the game entered the last 10 minutes, Derby built a series of attacks that culminated in being held up over the Bridgnorth line.
Derby came again, as the game entered injury time, forcing Bridgnorth to concede a number of penalties near their own line. This led to Bridgnorth losing a player to the sin bin.
With 86 minutes played, Derby launched another attack and the forwards drove over the try line, allowing Charlie Barker to touch down. Lewis Hancock added the conversion and Derby were ahead.
Unfortunately, Derby could not hang on and Bridgnorth scored an 89th minute try to snatch victory.
This was a magnificent Derby performance, full of pride, passion and hard work. Defensively, Derby were excellent and they took every opportunity to mount attacks where they could.
Watching, it was easy to forget Derby had to play for three quarters of the game with 14 men.
The losing bonus point they earned was the least they deserved.
There is no game next week, before Derby return to action with Broadstreet visiting Haslams.
Come on Derby!
Report by: R.Bambra