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Melbourne 1st XV 29 v 15 Nottinghamians 1st XV |
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Written by Ian Lucas
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Thursday, 25 September 2008 |
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Melbourne kicked off their league campaign with a hard earned win over a combative Nottinghamians side.
Melbourne 29 - Nottinghamians 15 Played in superb conditions, Melbourne were 10 points up within 2 minutes of the start. Skipper Euan Holden kicked off and Nottinghamians infringed straight away, with Euan slotting over the penalty. 3-0. Direct from the restart, the Nottinghamians 10 kicked the ball straight out and from the resulting centrefield scrum, a set move, switched the play from one side of the scrum to the other and saw the Melbourne fullback release the ball to Ash Stringer who scored under the posts. Euan Holden converting for a 10-0 score and there was only 2 minutes played! However any thoughts of a sixty pointer, so to speak, were dashed as Nottinghamians came back strongly and very soon had scored an unconverted try themselves. 10-5. The play then settled down. The scrums were even with both sides winning their own ball. Melbourne disrupted the Nottinghamians line out early on, but as the game progressed both sides were comfortable on their own ball. The rucking was aggressive with both sides disrupting the opposition ball, yet there were not actually that many turnovers. Rob Foster was under pressure from the Nottinghamians scrum half for most of the game. The whole game was disrupted by penalties. Melbourne improved on the 'back chat' of recent weeks and Nottinghamians were the side that let themselves down with discipline. Even the Ref commented at the end of the game that 'Melbourne were quiet for a change'. The remainder of the half was well matched. Defences dominated with neither side really making any substantial line breaks. The Nottinghamians fly half orchestrated a couple of half breaks but the Melbourne defence was up to the task. The first half saw 2 further tries, 1 for each side. Melbourne scored first. The forwards made a series of drives edging closer to the Nottinghamians line and the Rob Foster stole in on the act to get the touch down. Euan converted to make the score 17-5. Nottinghamians hit back soon after. They made good ground up the right and then spun the ball left only for a player to spill the ball over the line. However from the resulting 5 metre scrum, Euan's kick was charged down and the spilt ball was touched down by the flanker. The try was converted and the half time score was 17-12. The second half was a stop start affair with both side's infringements disrupting the flow of the game. Whenever either side made good ground and gained a territorial advantage, they seemed to give away a penalty and saw themselves giving it all away. The referee penalised 'back chat' and Nottinghamians seemed to come off worse in this respect. Defences continued to dominate and neither side really threatened a try in the second half. Euan wisely kicked for territory and when Nottinghamians infringed, took the points on offer too, scoring 3 penalties for, to 1 against in the second half. He also struck a drop goal and narrowly missed another. This made the final score 29-12. Kier Biggins made an honorary appearance in the backs (following a bang on the head to Dave Middleton) but spoilt it by giving away a penalty at the first breakdown afterwards. Judgey (whilst running the touch) suffered the best 'put down' from the Nottinghamians fly half (unrepeatable as there was swearing involved). All in all a win in the first league game, which could have been a potential banana skin. Other resultsBelper HWO v Castle Donnington (though I saw the result as 99-3)Chesterfield 50 - 12 LeesbrookRR 32 - 3 East RetfordWorksop 17 - 13 East Leake Match Report written by Peter (Pinky-Toilet) Ilott
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