They then had to reshuffle their team when Phil Largan went off injured. Henry Monsell switched to full back and flanker Luke Woolley came off the bench to play on the wing.

Fly-half Dominic Kohler kicked a penalty after two minutes to put Sedgley in front 0-3. Shortly afterwards Number 8 Rob Leigh made a powerful run into the Waterloo 22, but good defence stopped him five metres short.

On 25 minutes Sedgley did score a try. Senior made the incisive break from the half-way line and powered his way to the Waterloo 22 before passing to Monsell, who swerved inside the fullback to score under the posts. Kohler converted to extend the lead to 0-10.

However, Waterloo immediately hit back. Their fly-half kicked a penalty to reduce the lead to 3-10 after Sedgley were penalised for holding on.

Just before the break, scrum-half Paul Urmston put in a fine kick to force Waterloo to defend a lineout close to their try line.

The Sedgley forwards won that encounter and from the ensuing scrum Kohler ghosted past the Waterloo defence to score under the posts. He added the extras to make the half time score 3-17.

Waterloo then opened their scoring in the second half. Their fly-half kicked another penalty to reduce the lead to 6-17, when Sedgley infringed at a ruck.

On 55 minutes captain and centre Sion O’Hare made a terrific break from half-way and was only eventually overwhelmed five metres from the try line.

But Sedgley didn’t waste their attacking position. Kohler made the decisive opening before passing to Senior who found Dave Livesey in support and the speedy flanker scorched in for a good try. Kohler converted to extend Sedgley’s lead to 6-24.

If the league leaders thought this was going to be a stroll in the park, Waterloo had other ideas and immediately hit back with two tries in rapid succession.

When Sedgley lost the ball on the half-way line, a Waterloo centre took advantage of a fortuitous bounce to collect it and skip through two tackles to score under the posts.

From the restart the Waterloo fly-half shaped to put in a clearing kick but then dummied his way past a bemused defence. He then offloaded to his centre, who held off the covering defenders in a thrilling run to the line for his second try. With Waterloo converting the first try, the lead was cut to 18-24.

After 65 minutes Sedgley showed their ability to recycle the ball through several phases. First O’Hare and Leigh went close. Then Senior and Monsell created openings. Finally, with quick ball from the last ruck, Livesey was on hand to offload to lock Andrew Clegg who scored under the posts. Kohler converted to make the score 18-31.

Shortly before the end of the game, Kohler completed the scoring with a penalty to make the final score 18-34.

This had not been a vintage performance from the Champions-elect. There was too much ball lost at the rucks and too many handling errors. Nevertheless Sedgley once again had showed that they had the class and firepower to win when not at their best.