Weather crisp, bonus point win excellent, performance needs improvement

Now , the nitty gritty. After last weeks great performance, several players missing and bare bones again; Huw having to start on the wing, with Tom Didsbury, Jason Churchill, Ian Taylor rushing back from London to sub for the 1st time since his hand op and Will Lloyd willing to come along with Will North to put on a jersey. How many more Will puns can I get in?

In a game what can be described as Grim, Bingham persevered , had the odd moment and remain on top of Pennant 2 with a Bonus point win over Derby 3rds.

Appeared the Derby plan was to compete in the forwards or at least gain some parity with little ball seen going past the 12. That said their plan seemed to be working as Bingham came out of the starting blocks slow, sluggish and seemingly uninterested with Derby keeping play in the Bingham half and in control of possession.

On 10 mins Derby line out in the Bingham 22, a peel round the back of the line, a drive and a couple of passes sees Derby take the lead 5 – 0

This did not get the immediate reaction hoped for but at least we starting to compete and apply some pressure. Some good positional kicks from Mick Challans and Anthony Thomas led to a line on the Derby 22. A poor line but tided up by Jonathan Thomas allowed the backs to get going and Mick Challans created space for a 3:2 which saw the ball eventually get to Huw Thomas on the wing to dash over from ½ metre 5 – 5.

Will North then almost repeated his feat from last week collecting a kick in his own 22 ran round the first 2 lines of oncoming attackers and chipped over but just lost the race to ground the ball.

Just when some continuity was getting going Bingham’s way, a yellow for Derby and also go to uncontested scrums as the Derby Hooker leaves the field injured so no opportunity to apply any pressure in the scrum.

This threw Bingham completely as Derby ended the half playing 9 man rugby and seemingly getting all the put ins. HT and very disappointingly 5 – 5

The Derby Hooker comes back on and after an early incursion into the Derby half the ball gets down the back line and good leg drive from little Will North gets to the line and Andy Watts picks up and scores. Anthony Thomas converts 5 -12.

A 15/20 minute period ensued where we could just not get out of our own half, making some questionable decisions but at no time were Derby able to threaten the line. A missed Derby penalty and eventually a great clearance puts us right on the Derby line.

A fractious period where too many niggling incidents and after a series of attacks where not making any telling breaks, the ball gets to Lee Fretwell in the middle of the pitch on the 22 with a huge gap to run through and score under the posts. Converted by Anthony 5 – 19.

Greater scrum dominance in the last 15min and a pick up from Jonathan Thomas to run in from the 10m to get the bonus point 4th try and converted by Anthony to get a final score 5 – 26.

Overall a poor performance with no control in the line out, lacking power in the scrum and some poor decision making but a bonus point away win to keep clear in the pennant and all Thomas’s getting on the score sheet.