14 of our green and white boys made today's journey over to Derbyshire, and each and every one of those lads put in the full shift as we emerged victorious against a quality Matlock side. We have had a tough couple of months with injuries and absences, and as a result a shocking cup run; so with Matlock in the top tier NLD cup semi final and us in the bottom tier, we had a point to prove.

It was a physical contest from the start, but some early handling errors from both sides meant the two packs could size each other up with some early scrum time. It seemed the dominance lay with the Green and Whites, but the ref set his marker early, pinging for Charlie not driving straight at tighthead, and for an early shove.

Our backs tested the waters with Jack pinging the ball right and left from the base of the breakdown, giving Matty and Dan time on the ball. Arthur joined the line from 15, and JP was causing problems from outside centre. Jack and Elliott on the wings were getting warmed up and getting their hands on the ball early to test the Matlock edges.

Our green and white boys troubled the scoreboard first, solid forward work, with Freddie and George breaking the gain line, Josh, Tayne and James securing repeatedly and then letting the backs do the work. In a first half that ended 10-27 it was excellent. We worked as a team, the pack were relentless, Tayne hunted and gave the Matlock 9 and 10 no room, George and Freddie battered, Josh jackalled and Billy popped up in the back line. Charlie and James threw Tayne skywards in the lineout and Josh hit his mark. Everything was coming together allowing the backs the freedom and space they needed.

Defensively we were huge, the line speed from our back line was frightening and anyone trying to barge through the side of the breakdown was duly sent backwards with what Nathan would describe as a "great shot".

Matlock's two first half tries came from driving mauls from a five metre lineout, and ours were shared with slick hands and forward punch. Freddie, JP, Jack, Elliott and Tayne all crossing the line. Sadly Arthur's ankle didn't seem to be holding up as well as it could for his conversions as the extras seemed hard to come by.

Second half saw a shift though, as we perhaps switched off, slowed down, or perhaps just became tired from no subs. The first 15 minutes saw us on the ropes, as Matlock came at us. The odd tackle missed as we went more one on one rather than putting two in, and Matlock suddenly had a couple more scores on the table. Attacking wise we still threw all we could, and we still breached the defence, we also still seemed to struggle with a slippery ball, with handling letting us down when it seemed like a definite score coming.

At 22-32 Matlock were in the ascendency and the tide was turning. Every ping from the whistle was against our boys, we were marched back for dissent, every turnover was illegal, every offside line was breached and the ref decided he'd had enough, and James was yellowed and sent to the bin for too many offsides. Despite losing the ref, we rallied, being a man down, we let Matlock score again, but then we fired back.

Final score 29-39; realistically it perhaps should have been a bigger margin, but the hands let us down at times, but it was a massive improvement, and great to see all the lads playing with smiles on their faces. Huge thanks to Matlock for lending us a player each half, and for playing in the spirit of the game. A great game to watch, from two really good teams.