Tales Of The Unexpected

Derby  20   Nuneaton  17

Regional Midlands Division One

Admission / Programme – £5 / Gratis

It would have been some point over the Summer when Mrs and Master H joined me on a walk around Darley Park in Derby, which included passing alongside the Haslams home of Derby Rugby Club.

I commented to Mrs H that I’d never watched a game at the club, and in all honesty, as much as it would have been something a bit different to do, the likelihood of ever going was slim, mainly because games seem to only be played on a Saturday, and of course that would conflict with my first love.

I’ve been to a few Rugby League games over the years, but as far as the Union code goes, I’ve only ever been to two games. I went on a freebie back in 2014 for a Friday night game at Welford Road where Leicester lost to Bath in a cup tie, whereas I made an impromptu decision one Saturday in October 2016 while watching football in Northern Ireland, to head to Ulster v Exeter in the Heineken Cup at Ravenhill later that evening. Now that was a cracking night, Ulster won by a point, and I have to say it was a tremendous occasion in Belfast.

The death of Her Royal Highness as we all know, lead to all football being postponed on Saturday 10^th September. I have a view that maybe this wasn’t the right call to make, largely because other sports continued and paid their own respects accordingly, but at the same time I respected the decision. What it meant though was that I suddenly had a very unexpected opportunity to pay a visit to Derby, who were at home to Nuneaton in their first home game of the season.

I had no idea what to expect if I’m being honest, I didn’t know how many would be watching, where I could park, or how much it would be to get in. I was well and truly winging it, and as far as having any sort of knowledge of levels, standards and indeed the rules, the word ‘naïve’ springs to mind!

My online knowledge told me that Derby played in Midlands Division One, but where the next step is after that I’m not sure? They won their opening game of the season away at Lichfield, and as I drove the short distance down the A38, I felt a sense of anticipation, an excitement of entering into the unknown.

Arriving around an hour before kick off, I was fortunate to get one of the final spaces in the car park that sits at the Haslams Lane end of the ground. Admission was a fiver and you got a free programme with it.

It looked like it was going to be a busy afternoon, what I think was Derby Colts v Dronfield was taking place on one of the two outer pitches, while the players for Derby Thirds v Ilkeston were on the other pitch. A barbecue was also up and running outside the clubhouse with a decent crowd assembled on the patio already.

The main pitch is an artificial surface, which I don’t seem to think is all that common when it comes to Rugby Union, and in Derby’s case it's fully railed with hard standing, while on one side of the pitch is a seated stand which is set back from the playing arena on top of a raised bank. Floodlights are also in place, but I suspect they mainly come into use in midweek for training etc.

The clubhouse is a cracker (as you would expect at a rugby club), located on the top floor of a two story building, it’s spacious and very impressive inside, bedecked with much memorabilia, and as the game moved towards kick off it filled up nicely. Mingling with the spectators were club officials, dressed in very distinctive gold and black striped blazers (the club colours), very smart they looked, I’ll have to mention that idea to Belper Town FC……..

You could watch the game from the balcony in front of the clubhouse, but I chose to get pitch side to watch the action close up, and, as I wasn’t 100% on some of the rules, I though being that bit closer to it might give me a bit of a steer (in hindsight it didn’t!)

So, the game, and I’m kind of going to cheat a bit here and give a chronological account of what happened (with significant help from the Derby RFC Twitter feed!). Lewis Hancock gave the home side an early lead with a try, but the conversion was missed, then almost directly from the re-start Nuneaton scored and converted to make it 5-7.

With me so far? Good, well Hancock scored again and the conversion was once again missed to make it 10-7, but the Nuns were soon back into it and just before the half hour mark they pushed over for a try and found themselves back in the lead.

Nuneaton missed a couple of penalties early in the second period, but then they scored their third try of the game and found themselves at the right end of a 10-17 score line. It did look like the visitors had it in the bag but Derby then found some drive and energy and with ten minutes to go Hancock scored his hat-trick try in the corner, we were set for a tense and exciting finish.

Josh Bingham converted the try to bring the scores level at 17-17, and then as we moved into the fifth minute of injury time, Derby were awarded a penalty, and up stepped Bingham. The crowd went silent, the Nuns shook their heads in disbelief, the ball went through the posts, 20-17.

More injury time was played but Derby hung on, two wins from two, and joyous scenes at the end as both sets of players applauded each other off in the traditional way.

I reckon close to 200 were watching the main game, and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. A trip to Haslams is a very good afternoon out, and should the opportunity present it itself in the future, I’d definitely go again. I’ve got an awful lot to learn about the game, no doubt about it, but then again if you asked me to explain the latest technicalities of the offside law and the VAR protocol in football I’d be struggling if I’m honest.

As an absolute minimum, Derby RFC have gained a new Twitter follower!