The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Brilliant Borough deliver a great display to defeat Derby
Peterborough RUFC coach Shane Manning was thrilled with his side’s performance as they completed a Midlands Division One East double over promoted Derby.
Borough fought back from 143 down to win 29-14 at Fengate in what Manning described as his side’s ‘best performance of the season.’
It’s finally been revealed by the RFU that the top three in Division One will be promoted so Derby will join West Bridgford and champions Bedford Athletic in the Premier Division next season.
Borough look set to finish fourth which suits Manning.
“We’re not ready for promotion,” Manning said. “We haven’t got the squad depth yet as has been obvious from recent results.
“But the Derby performance was the best we have produced this season.
“The lads stuck to their structure and systems really well. Every man really stood up and was counted.
“Two lads who did a great job were props Aaron Thorne and Chris Sykes as they played the entire 80 minutes because of unavilabilities and were always in the defence line.
“If we could produce this level every Saturday we would be hard to beat.”
Borough started the game well and scored first as Byron Van Uden slotted a penalty.
A couple of mistakes saw Derby score two converted well-taken tries against the run of play to lead 14-3.
Borough, however, stayed disciplined and stuck to Manning’s gameplan before producing a great team try which
was finished by winger Willis Ingleby who left three defenders grabbing at air. With the conversion missed Derby had a 14-8 half time lead.
Derby were feeling very confident at the start of the second half, but Borough would go onto produce the best 40 minutes of rugby they have played all season.
Derby had the majority of possession and territory, but could not break down the
dogged home defence.
And when Borough did manage to get hold of the ball they made the most of it and scored three great tries.
Liam Dunne was first to score following a rolling maul, and, not wishing to be outdone, try-scoring machine Rob Jacobs crossed twice to bring his personal tally for the season to 20 tries from 21 games.
All three tries were con
verted by Van Uden.
Borough have two Division One games to go at mid-table Dronfield on Saturday and at home to local rivals Kettering on April 23.
They look set to keep their city derbies against Peterborough Lions next season despite a heavy re-structuring will see several new opponents in a slimmed down league. There is no relegation from Division One this season.