Castle Donington Rugby Club Make it Two in a Row

Castle Donington Rugby Club secured their second victory of the season with a resounding 47-0 win away from home against a Loughborough 4th XV. This victory came just one week on from their 20-0 home defeat of Skegness in a league encounter. In an astounding reversal of fortunes Castle Donington are looking to put to rest the horrors of recent seasons and current form suggests that they may have turned the corner.

Straight from the first whistle the Castle Donington pack assumed control and disrupted the Loughborough scrum at will, which allowed them to exert pressure in opposition territory. This resulted in two early penalties for the visitors, both converted by Simon Moon. This lead was extended when Right Wing, Gareth Whittaker, broke through the middle of the field at pace to score under the posts. His score was converted by Moon, who is growing in stature with each performance. A powerful break by Centre replacement Ollie Clarke playing in his first game of the season, having come on for the unfortunate Dean Meakin who had sprained his wrist, resulted in a Loughborough lineout on their own 5 metre line. Dan Robinson, standing in as captain in the absence of Alan White, got up to steal the Loughborough ball. Prop Neil Whitehead, newly announced as the forwards coach, was the first to react and quickly fed the ball to Fly Half Moon who crashed over from close range. Moon converted his own try to take the score to 0-20.

Within minutes the score was 0-25, as Clarke made a carbon copy break, however, this time he was not stopped and proceeded to score alongside the posts. This time Moons radar was out and the conversion was missed. The referee, worried about the apparent mismatch in the packs, asked Castle Donington to take it easy in the scrums, which they duly obliged with. This was to have an impact on their ability to secure possession and when, following the second scrum of the second half the scrums finally went uncontested the game turned into a somewhat different affair. With their set piece now taken away from them Castle Donington now struggled to maintain the same control over the game which they had in the first half.

It was a good 10 minutes into the second half before Castle Donington managed to resume their scoring spree and it was Prop Steven Bradley, in a rich vein of form, who was there to put the finishing touches to a spell of pressure. Again Moons effort went awry but Castle Donington were, by now, away and clear with the score at 0-30. Next to score was speedster Ian Lewis, who showed the defence a clean pair of heels before jogging in under the posts to make the conversion a certainty. It was Lewis who scored the next try as well, once again he had too much pace for a wilting Loughborough defence as he outstripped them to score in the corner but this put Moon under pressure and the conversion was missed. The days scoring was rounded off by Whittaker who went in for his second score of the match.

From a lineout inside Castle Donington’s half Robinson rose to take another fine catch. The ball was fed quickly to Moon who drew the defence onto him before kicking cross field to Whittaker. Whittaker collected the ball, in his stride, just over the half way line, drew the Full Back and then stepped inside him before racing home to score under the posts. Once more the kick was missed and the game finished with a scoreline of 0-47 in favour of the visiting side. A second consecutive clean sheet was the reward for the hard work and determination of a side which is turning the corner in terms of both results and performances. The tale does not end there, however, far from being happy with their performance Castle Donington left reflecting on squandered opportunities, missed points and far too many handling errors. This, again, is a reflection of how far Castle Donington appear to have come since last season.

This week sees Castle Donington return to league action, away at Strutt’s Field, kick off 3pm, where they visit Belper. In the corresponding fixture last year, a makeshift Castle Donington side was trounced by Belper. This weekend will see a real indication of the progress made by the club and we look forward to the prospect of another fine performance by the team.

Castle Donington 1st XV V’s Loughborough 4th XV;
Holt, Whittaker, Meakin, Brentnall, Lewis, Moon, Boddy, Bradley, Wood, Whitehead, Harris, Robinson (Capt), Summers, Cook, Keeling D.
Replacements; White, Clarke O.