Discipline Disappoints!!

Back to the league this week with the visitors to Haslam’s Lane being Birmingham Bulldogs who were currently holding second place in the Premier League.

Derby expected this to be an extremely hard game and weren’t disappointed!! Birmingham took control of the game however whilst the visitors outscored Derby in the first half City ensured that they stayed in the game. Tries from Lewis Thompson, converted by Scrum Half Mark Harrison after 12 minutes, followed by a double by Centre Jack Pearce with one converted again by Harrison.

Whilst Birmingham had threated to stretch the game the Half Time score was Derby City 16 Birmingham Bulldogs 20.

Now came the manic fifteen minutes as Derby City attempted to Implode, Discipline a constant issue this season saw Hooker Lee Chapman spend 10 minutes on the side line along with a Bulldog player due to hand bags at dawn. Birmingham were the next to score before Will Smith crossing the line through shear strength to score an unconverted try. The game was still in the balance however Full Back Thompson lost complete focus and was red carded in the 54th minute for punching.

The loss of Thompson meant that Derby went to 11 players and then had an upward struggle which Birmingham started to exploit and scored two converted tries.

Full time Derby City 20 Birmingham Bulldogs 36. Man of the match making his home debut Tom Pottinger.

Discipline needs to improve as the decent teams like the Bulldogs will always exploit and punish.