A welcome win for Market Rasen & Louth

​After only two wins from seven games, Rasen needed a victory and began the game well as Chris Everton went over for the opening try out wide.

When Belgrave were then awarded a penalty they drilled it into touch giving a line-out on the Rasen line. Another penalty saw their forwards elect to take a direct line and clever handling saw them create an overlap to fly over in the corner.

From the restart Market Rasen tried again to exert maximum pressure but a scrum in Belgrave’s favour saw them move the ball quickly to their wing who evaded the defenders to score in the left hand corner.

Rasen came back with a more or less instant response following a rousing forward attack and a well-timed run into the line from full back Spencer Holvey saw him avoid tackles and charge through to score and restore Rasen’s lead.

But when a clearance kick from Belgrave was caught safely, the retaliatory clearance from Rasen was charged down and collected by Belgrave to score under the Rasen uprights for them to lead 17-14 at the break.

A penalty brought the scores leve early in the second-half before a tactical kick to the corner by Mike Starling saw winger Lloyd Buck pluck the ball from the air to go over in the corner.

From the re-start a powerful phase helped by some battering runs by centres Jake Addison and Will Stephens saw winger Buck scoot off down the wing and was sure to score but was felled by a high tackle resulting in a Belgrave yellow card and a Rasen penalty try.

Then a loose ball was kicked on by Will Stephens who followed up to score under the posts, before a determined Tommy Stephens turned over the Belgrave ball, the ensuing clearance kick slapped backwards by the Belgrave winger straight into the waiting arms of Ollie Scott who sped through a gap to take the ball under the posts.

A last gasp score by the Belgrave forwards brought the final score to 39-24, but this was a great win for Rasen.