Rasen 1XV 52 - 0 West Bridgford 1XV

Midlands 2 East (North) results and table

After a narrow and disappointing loss at home last Saturday the opposition never looked like getting a look in in this match.

The return of Ollie Cole and Leigh Dearden added some much needed extra bite to the pack, but bottom of the table West Bridgford were never going to pose the same threat as Spalding and Rasen won this one-sided encounter at a canter.

The red and greens soon had the visitors on the back foot and opened the scoring with a Paul Cook penalty in the eighth minute. This set the pattern for the first half as Rasen dominated proceedings and the game was played almost exclusively in the West Bridgford half, except for restarts and even then the lacklustre opposition's kicker found it difficult to make the requisite ten metres on several occasions.

A dominant scrum saw play taken blind, but fly half Nick John cleverly switched play to the open side before fullback Matt Neesham popped up on the inside of diminutive winger Chris Green to receive the scoring pass. West Bridgford's woes were compounded when their stand-off was caught loitering in an offside position and received a yellow card with Cook punishing the misdemeanour with another penalty kick.

The home side's monopoly on possession was not always used wisely with some poor decision making and handling, which took pressure off the visitors' already beleaguered defence. With twenty seven minutes gone, winger Peter Everton was put into space and the speedster made no mistake as he glided effortlessly around the visitors' sprawling defence to score in the corner.

The red and green forward juggernaut was relentless and as the half drew to a close, a five metre West Bridgford scrum was turned over. The reset scrum with a Rasen put in was driven mercilessly over the visitors' line with number eight Dean Hutchinson touching down for a pushover try. A half time score of 21 - 0 didn't really fully reflect the extent of the Willingham Road men's dominance.

The second half was much the same as the first with most of the action taking place in West Bridgford's half and the Rasen twenty-two a largely uncharted area as far as the visitors from Nottingham were concerned. Within four minutes Rasen had taken a scrum against the head and scrumhalf Andy Neesham took the ball blind before finding winger Everton who, seeing his way to the line blocked, deftly flicked the ball inside to the marauding Hutchinson in full flight to stampede over the line close to the posts leaving Cook with an easy conversion.

With a West Bridgford lock languishing in the sin bin, Rasen took full advantage opting for a scrum at a penalty shortly after the recalcitrant visitor's dismissal. Hutchinson picked up at number eight and two passes later centre Cook was in at the corner. From the restart John spotted space behind the advancing defence and put in a delicate chip that bounced into the path of chasing winger Everton. The young flyer hacked the ball on and had enough pace to beat the covering defender to the touch down, again leaving Cook with another simple kick for the extra points.

A rare West Bridgford attack ended in disaster as the centre attempted a chip but only succeeded in depositing the ball into the up stretched hands of James Bemrose who just managed to evade the chasing defenders, being thankful that the line hadn't been a further ten metres away. A change of kicker resulted in John adding the conversion.

The final score came from substitute winger Ernie Thompson who used his size to bullock his way over in the corner despite the attentions of two desperate defenders.

A resounding victory against a poor side that are not flattered by their lowly league position but this had been a golden opportunity to make even further in-roads into Coalville's superior points differential. Fifty two points is a good return, but with such dominance the players should reflect on the opportunities that were not capitalised upon. A greater precision in the passing and better decision making would have reaped further rewards. (It's always easier from the touchline!)

Team: Cole, Oliver, Nicholls, Mitchell, Thornes, Chamberlin, Dearden, Hutchinson, Neesham A, John, Everton, Cook, Bemrose, Green, Neesham M
Subs (all used): Barnard, Thompson, Wootton