A large, expectant, crowd boosted by 150 former players, turned up at Waverley Road on Saturday, the vast majority looking for the Blues to continue their great start to the season.

The visitors, however, had other ideas and started with a real bang, catching the Blues early and taking the lead with a well struck penalty.

Worse was to follow for the home side, when a chip and chase by the impressive Belgrave winger, saw George Newman rightly yellow carded for a late tackle, but somewhat harshly a penalty try awarded by the referee. The simple conversion added and Belgrave led 10-0 with 15 minutes gone, followed by a further penalty to open up a 13 point lead.

Finally the Blues came to life and Joe Newman powered over for a unconverted try on 22 minutes, quickly followed by a Joe Daniel penalty. Then, as the half came to a close, Tom Bridgeman crossed from close range for Daniel to convert, as the Blues took the lead for the first time.

Newman then crossed for his second score to give the Blues a 20-13 half-time lead.

The Blues were now dominating proceedings, although Belgrave belied their lowly position with a real gutsy performance, and it was 15 minutes before George Newman showed pace and power to score in the corner, followed by Daniels second penalty put the home side 3 scores clear.

On 77 minutes Matt Neild scored the Blues 5th try of the day to see them home. However, Belgrave had the final say and scored a converted try in stoppage time, which epitomised their never say die attitude and will surely see them win enough games this season to avoid a quick return to Midlands 2.

RAJ Man of the Match: Steve Fraher