Castle Donington Suffer Humiliation at the Hands of Belper

Castle Donington Rugby Club saw their good early season form evaporate before their eyes in the autumn sun, away at Belper. Following on from their back to back victories in the two previous weeks, Castle Donington travelled to Strutt’s Field, Belper in confident mood, despite the fact that injury and unavailability meant they travelled with just a bare 15 players. Unfortunately, that confidence proved to be misplaced and the side struggled, from the outset, to cope with the pace and ability of the Belper backline in particular. With just a few minutes on the clock Castle Donington found them 12-0 down and forced to play the remainder of the game with just 14 players as they lost Fly Half Simon Moon to a concussion and will now be without him for the next 3 weekends as he takes a mandatory break from playing.

Belper found they were able to score at will throughout the remainder of the game and ran up a cricket score of 107 points. A consolation first half penalty was struck by centre Ollie Clarke, who had elected to play whilst carrying an injury in order to help the side out, leaving the final score of 107-3 in favour of the home side. Whilst it would have been difficult to play the majority of the game with only 14 players Castle Donington did not help their cause with some woeful defending. This was extremely disappointing as the players have worked extremely hard on their individual and team defence and have seen massive improvements over recent weeks.

Next week sees the visit of Uttoxeter to the Spital, kick off 3pm; it is also the Castle Donington Vice Presidents day and it should see the unveiling of the new 1st XV shirts. The club now face a difficult task to pick the players back up and prepare them physically and mentally for the visit of a Uttoxeter side which has started the season in a rich vein of form and sit on top of the league, after two games, with a healthy points difference. Indeed, in their opening game Uttoxeter visited Belper and put 41 points on them. The next few weeks will be a real test of character for Castle Donington and support on the touchline would be most welcomed.

Castle Donington 1st XV V’s Belper 1st XV;
Cook, Whittaker, Clarke O, Michaud, Lewis, Moon, Boddy, Bradley, Wood, Whitehead, Harris, Robinson, Keeling D, Summers, White (Capt).