U11's Strong against Chesterfield

Due to the late withdrawal of opposition Nottingham, it appeared that Ilkeston under 11’s would be left with a training weekend to follow their fantastic performance of last week. Thankfully Chesterfield kindly stepped in at the last minute to provide competition at the Stute.
An abundance of players for both sides ensured that both teams would make rolling substitutions to provide all with playing time. Ilkeston won the toss and kicked off, and immediately the Elks’ forwards welcomed Chesterfield to the match with strong hits. This pressure enabled Ben Middleton to dart around a formed ruck only to be felled close to the line. Winger Sam Rose was alert enough to pick the ball up and drop over the line. The try was converted by Issac Smith. Fly Half Smith was to be involved in the next try when he kicked a lofted high ball towards Chesterfield’s full back. Centre Tom Caines followed the kick, tackled the player, picked the ball up and sprinted to the line to score. Again converted by Smith. Ilkeston’s third try was just reward from great driving from forwards Alfie Cox and Robbie Boddington, which allowed scrum half Middleton to lurch around the blind side to score. Conversion converted by Smith. Ilkeston were established and looking well towards building on last week’s result at Coalville.

Chesterfield finally awoke from their travels, and through their playmaker fly half, responded with a converted try of their own. This gave confidence to the away side who continued to apply pressure on the Elks 15 metre line, only strong tackling from Zack Lebeter and a couple of try saving tackles from full back Joseph Doughty kept them at bay. This resistance finally failed and Chesterfield scored their second converted try. Finally after a wakeup call from the coaches Ilkeston immediately responded with a devastating charge by Cameron Greenfield which resulted in his sixth try of the season. Again converted by Smith. Unfortunately the first half was marred by the loss of Captain Boddington and fly half Smith through injury. Half time score 28-14 to Ilkeston.

The second half saw the introduction of wingers Connor Corrigan and Luke Moore, props Jordan Pritchett and Connor Connelly who admirably maintained the standard from the first half. Liam Flinders, Jack Walker and Christopher Goodall also entered the affray. This half saw Ilkeston establish themselves as the dominate team; the first half had shown that they needed to step up their game to ensure that the big Chesterfield forwards didn’t start to dictate the outcome of the game.
The Ilkeston scrum never moved an inch backwards throughout the match which allowed hooker Felix Rabusin to provide clean ball for the scrum half. Prop Aidan Norris through the first half had provided great yardage at every opportunity, and he was finally rewarded with a try straight up the middle of the field, converted by Ben Middleton. With the bit between his teeth Norris immediately repeated this feat and scored again this time to be converted by Doughty. Unfortunately this half saw two moments by the Ilkeston defence, where through lack of experience they kindly treated Chesterfield to two converted tries within the space of five minutes. This brought the score to 42-28. Greenfield , recently returned to centre, scored his second try of the game as he raced up the right hand side of the pitch performing two dummies to the retreating defence before crossing the line. This was converted by Caines. The match was finally completed by an unconverted try by Caines who from his own half broke the now tiring Chesterfield defence and galloped away to score.

A wonderful performance by all players, with special mentions to the back row of Billy Derbyshire and Liam Flinders, who made it around the park all day tackling and slowing the considerably larger Chesterfield forwards. Thanks again to Chesterfield for providing an entertaining match helping bring about this fixture at short notice.

Final score 54-28 to Ilkeston

Man of the match – Tom Caines.

Jon Doughty