Derby travelled to Finstall Park and made several changes to the side that beat Syston. Josh Harvey, Jake Barker, Kristian Powell and Jack Partinton all came into the starting XV, while Simon Duke made his debut from the bench.
Unfortunately, Josh Bingham damaged his hamstring in the warm-up, so Derby had to shuffle the side, with Cam Finlay moving from the bench to start on the wing. Kristian Powell went to fly half and McGrath Van Wyk to full back. On a baking hot day, this also left Derby with only 2 replacements.
Derby kicked off and were behind after 6 minutes when Bromsgrove kicked a penalty.
7 minutes later Bromsgrove scored a try when their full-back ran from halfway, with Derby unable to lay a hand on him.
Derby hit back after 25 minutes. An excellent chip from McGrath Van Wyk was taken by Patrick Burke and he touched down. McGrath Van Wyk added the conversion.
Bromsgrove kicked a penalty after 28 minutes. McGrath Van Wyk responded in kind for Derby 6 minutes later, to make the score 11 – 10 to Bromsgrove.
3 minutes of the half remained when Bromsgrove scored a try that was very similar to their first! This time the conversion was taken.
McGrath Van Wyk kicked a penalty just before the half-time whistle, leaving the score 18 – 13 to Bromsgrove at the break.
The second half started badly for Derby when Bromsgrove scored another converted try after 2 minutes and 11 minutes later, they added a penalty. This left Bromsgrove 28 – 13 ahead and Derby with a mountain to climb.
Derby were having long spells of pressure in the Bromsgrove 22, but were unable to score.
Simon Duke came on for his debut, but unfortunately didn’t last long before he took what looked like a head knock and was forced off.
Derby continued to press, but it was Bromsgrove who scored next with 12 minutes remaining and they scored again 9 minutes later. Both tries were converted leaving Bromsgrove 29 points ahead.
With the final play of the game, Derby scored a try in the corner through Jake Barker. An excellent McGrath Van Wyk conversion completed the game.
A tough day for Derby against a big, powerful Bromsgrove side.
Broadstreet are the visitors to Haslams next week.
Come on Derby!
Report by: R. Bambra