Matlock through to Derbyshire Cup Final

Matlock welcomed old foes Derby to a sunny Cromford Meadows. Presented with perfect playing conditions the home side were looking forward to maintaining their current league form against their old adversaries. With Alex Powell, Harry Boyd and James Harrod all unavailable for this encounter Harry Morton partnered Dan Hooton in the centre, Mike Allen came onto the wing and Rory Cookman joined Conor Loughnane on the bench along with club coach Dave Hartley who named himself as back sub to avoid having to cup tie a 2nd team player, despite nursing a foot injury.
As the teams ran out onto the pitch there was a stiff breeze blowing across the pitch towards the clubhouse side. Derby kicked off, Matlock gathered the ball recycled and set the ruck. Tom Morton put up a testing box kick and as Mike Allen jumped to challenge for the ball he was taken out in the air by the Derby full back. The referee had no hesitation in showing the player a yellow card and Derby found themselves temporarily down to fourteen men with only 50 seconds on the clock. Tom Morton nudged the penalty kick into the Derby 22 for an attacking line. A good take followed by the catch and drive took Matlock closer to the line. Matlock’s forwards piled on the pressure with pick and goes setting up the position for Chris Atkinson to force his way over for the opening score. Tom Morton added the extras for a 7-0 lead with only 3 minutes on the clock. From the restart Matlock looked to attack again but let Derby off the hook when a kick to deep was to strong running over the Derby dead ball line and handing Derby a scrum on half way. Matlock were penalised at the scrum and again gave Derby easy territory as the resultant kick was nudged towards the Matlock 22. Derby’s catch and forward drive was good and when the ball was spun out to the three-quarters a defensive mix up allowed the Derby centre an easy run in under the posts. The kick added scores were level 7-7. As the game settled down the teams continued to test each other’s defences and on 15 minutes Matlock scored a scorcher of a try. With play just inside the Derby half Matlock opened up the ball to the backs, Luke Howard came off the left wing and hit a great line to scythe through the Derby defence. He took the tackle of the full back but managed to offload to Young who fed Mike Allen who in turn passed to James Fairclough in space to outpace the remaining defenders on a 40 yard dash to the line. Morton converted brilliantly from out wide 14-7. Derby came back at the home side again Tom Cruttenden unluckily was given 10 minutes in the sin bin for a high tackle, although the initial contact was clearly below the shoulder. This gave Derby the upper hand in scrum for the first time in the match and they began to make the best of some front foot ball. Some uncharacteristic slack defence allowed the Derby prop to saunter through and make good ground before being hauled down my Matlock’s scrambling defence. As Derby looked to work a potential overlap Dan Hooton tried to intercept but knocked the ball on and was given a yellow card for his efforts. Derby took full advantage of the depleted home side numbers to score their second try. The conversion attempt came back off the post 14-12 with 22 minutes gone. Thirteen man Matlock knuckled down to some hard graft and when finally they were restored to equal numbers they again began to look like taking control of the game. With half time only minutes away Matlock struck again. Following some great approach play involving interplay with backs and forwards space was created for Luke Howard who raced down the wing then cut inside before finding James Young in support. Young was brought down and Derby were penalised at the breakdown. Matlock chose to scrum, Simon Wright picked up and Matlock went into pick and go mode with Curtis Bolam finding space to crash over for a crucial score. Tom Morton converted again from out wide 21-12. With half time imminent Derby took the restart and with Matlock only needing to play with composure they put up a box kick and an over keen Charlie Jackson was yards offside which unnecessarily gave Derby an attacking position which they took full advantage of to score in the opposite corner with the aid of some well concealed obstruction in midfield. The conversion was wide heralding the half time whistle, 21-17.
Dave Hartley delivered his half time talk which was a mixture of praise, encouragement and more than a pinch of harsh criticism regarding the player’s decision making at crucial moments in the first half. With his words ringing in their ears Matlock began the second half with real intensity and a noticeable sharpness about their play. Strong ball carrying by the pack backed up by intelligent running and support play from the threes soon brought dividends as on 43 minutes Curtis Bolam went over in the tunnel corner for his second try. This time Morton’s conversion attempt was wide 26-17. Dave Hartley made a couple of changes bringing on Conor Loughnane and Rory Cookman for Tom Stokes and Tom Cruttenden. Matlock were now in a real purple patch and with another score 3 minutes later they began to take the game away from Derby. It began with a huge clearance kick by James Fairclough which took play to just outside the Derby 22. It was Derby’s lineout but it wasn’t a clean catch and Chris Atkinson grabbed hold of the ball and burst away from the lineout. A couple of phases later the ball was fizzed along the three quarters to Dan Hooton who drew two defenders before feeding Mike Allen who in turn passed to Fairclough to dive over in the corner for his second try. Morton again converted brilliantly from way out wide 33-17. Matlock were now in the ascendancy but Derby were not for rolling over. Matlock had to wait until the game entered the final quarter before extending their lead. Pinned back deep in their own 22 the Derby pack looked to drive forwards but were held by the Matlock pack. The Derby scrum half came around with the ball but was scragged by Conor Loughnane who stripped him of the ball and then side stepped his way past a couple of defenders before scoring in the corner. Morton’s kick was wide 38-17. Harry Morton made way for Dave Hartley to join in the fun but Derby still refused to lie down scoring another well worked try on 70 minutes. The conversion effort was again wide 38-22. Matlock were hungry for another score and it came it fitting fashion on 73 minutes when Dave Hartley delivered a lesson in running lines by taking a great line to scythe through the Derby midfield completely untouched to dive over under the posts. Morton added the extras 45-23. However Derby still refused to give it up and with time running out they took advantage of a tired Matlock defence, stretched and wrong footed to cross for the last score. The conversion added the game was over 45-29.
A great game of rugby between two committed sides who had clearly been reminded prior to kick off, of the history of this fixture. A solid team performance by the home side and congratulations to young prop Conor Loughnane on earning his 1st XV tie at the age of 19 and marking it with a fine try.
Next week Matlock resume their league campaign when they travel to Southwell where the game kicks off at 3.00pm
Team: Wright T, Bolam C, Stokes T, Atkinson C, Emmerson M, Cruttenden T, Jackson C, Wright S, Morton T, Young J, Howard L, Morton H, Hooton D, Allen M, Fairclough J
Bench: Loughnane C, Cookman R, Hartley D