Melbourne won a hard fought clash in the first league game of the New Year. Captain Euan Holden, standing in for Martin Barr, led Melbourne to a win, with a late penalty to deny Dronfield a win in this league fixture.

Match Report

Melbourne arrived to hear the that the league referee had injured himself in the 3 mile walk from the car park to the changing rooms. A member of the Dronfield club kindly refereed the game and the captains agreed to it being a league fixture.

Melbourne's side had a few changes, with a mixture of youth and experience in both backs and forwards. The front row was Pete Birchill, Nathan Goodyear and Pop Lakin with Pete Welsh and Greg in the second row. Steve Bell, Smithy and Judgey made up the back row. Jake and Euan were at half back with the ever young Dave Middleton partnering Devanny in the midfield. Matt Brown, Pete Ilott and Carl feix made up the back 3.

Melbourne started with the slope and a strong wind in their favour. They started strongly and made use of the conditions to spend time in the Dronfield half. However, a fumble at the base of the scrum saw Dronfield break away up field and Melbourned ended up conceding a penalty in front of the posts. 0-3

Melbourne again pressurised Dronfield with good territory. The Dronfield side mauled well, and cleared their lines well. Both sides took advantage of the referee when they could and this made for an interesting game with at least another 10 referees on the pitch trying to take advantage of the ref. The ref, to his credit, kept the game flowing well.

Euan leveled the game with a short range penalty only for Dronfield to restore their lead with a penalty themselves. Euan returned with a long range effort to level the game at 6-6.

The last 15mins saw Melbourne exert a lot of pressure on the Dronfield line. The forwards had a good catch and drive and thought they had scored only for the ref award a scrum for 'being held up'. The forwards drove again. Jake had a go from short range and despite there being overlaps both sides a series of short drives were kept out by resilient Dronfield defence, eventually stealing the ball and clearing. 2 penalties on the right were run' rather than kicked and the second one resulted on Judgey scoring to make the half time score 6-11.

Melbourne knew the second half was going to be tough up the hill and into the wind and it proved to be the case. Dronfield made use of the elements and Melbourne's tendency to concede penalties to kick 2 penalties making the score 12-11 with over 20 minutes to go.

Melbourne had to dig deep and the did. Dronfield continued to press and pressurised the Melbourne line but the defence held firm. Twice the Dronfield number 8 was stopped on the line and turned over with Devanny, Jake and Pete Ilott working well to rob him. There were a couple of other turnovers close to the line which allowed Melbourne to clear lines with Euan clearing well. It was the defence that rescued the day and all 15 players performed well. Melbourne did have their chances. A chip and chase saw Devanny break clear and (clearly haven eaten too many mince pies) he decided that he wasn't going to make it, saw him pass the ball to Pete Birchall who unfortunately knocked on. Jake and Pete combined well up the left hand side. One move nearly scored on the left but the inside pass was not completed. A miss move up the right saw ground made but the final pass went to the opposition. Eventually Melbourne were awarded a kickable penalty and Euan did the honours to make the score 12-14.

Melbourne however, put more pressure on themselves with a knock on from the restart. This allowed Dronfield to pressurise again for the last 5 minutes, but no penalties were conceded and Melbourne saw the game out.

All in all, a win. The pack performed well against a big mauling pack. Melbourne probably shaded the lineouts, but the Dronfield pack certainly put pressure on Melbourne in the scrums. The backs performed well, with very few errors despite a much changed back line. The defence was excellent.

Report by P.Ilott

Scorers

Tries: Judge 1

Cons: -

Pens: Holden 3

Team

1. Birchill
   
2. Goodyear
   
3. Lakin
4. Hunt
   
5. Welsh
6. Judge
7. Smith
8. Bell
9. Oxspring
10. Holden (c)
    
11. Feix
12. Middleton
    
13. Devanny
14. Brown
    
15. Ilott