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It was nearly 2:30 before Worksop turned up at Cockshut Lane for this NLD quarter final match, Melbourne's minds were already on an early shower and an afternoon watching the Internationals when the cars finally pulled into the car park.
Euen Holden kept the same available pack but made a few changes in the backs bringing Jake Oxspring into the centres and Sean Mohan onto the wing for his 1st XV debut.
The match started in near perfect rugby conditions, this was short lived when soon after the start the heavens opened and it continued to rain for the rest of the afternoon. Melbourne started the brighter of the two sides and immediately tested the Worksop defence, Worksop as expected were a physical set of forwards who liked to take the ball on upfront but were reluctant to use their backs and so possession was often kicked back to Melbourne to allow Stringer, Mohan and Sylvester to put Melbourne back onto the front foot.
Melbourne opened the scoring after superb play had taken the play from one side of the pitch to the other and created a massive overlap with Jake Oxspring finishing the move off near the posts, Holden converting 7:0.
Soon after this Melbourne increased their lead when Ashley Stringer touched down for his 15th try of the season following a blind side move from a scrum.
Worksop kept kicking for the corners and began to put pressure on Melbourne deep in their own 22, only excellent defence keeping the visitors from scoring from their effective rolling mauls.
Melbourne's next attack took them deep into the Worksop half, Keir Biggins made good yards to take the play up-to the Worksop line, Ian Lucas was in support to drop over the line for his 15th try of the season and to take the half time lead to 17:0.
Holden bought on Goodyear for Macer at half time and soon after bought on Chris Fulton for Sylvester after aggravating a hamstring injury.
The rain seemed to get stronger during the second half with both sides struggling to keep control of the ball in contact, the referees whistle was becoming frequently heard as individual battles started to flare up and penalties conceded. Worksop worked their way into Melbourne's 22 and were awarded a penalty 5 yards from the try line only to have it reversed and a player sin-binned following a punch, Melbourne kicked the penalty to touch but the referee awarded Worksop a scrum back for a Melbourne player being in front of the kicker!! Worksop attacked from the scrum and eventually scored in the corner 17:5.
The next try came slightly against the run of play following a rolling maul just inside the Worksop half, Nathan Goodyear rolled off the back of the maul and sprinted down the blindside wing to score in the corner 22:5, a comment from a Worksop player saw the second yellow card of the afternoon and for a few minutes Worksop were down to 13 players.
The last 10 minutes of the game deteriorated from a decent game of rugby into more fracas and off the ball incidents, Worksop eventually scored again when their scrum half finished a move in the corner to leave the final score 22:10 and Melbourne safely through to the semi-finals.
It is believed that Rolls Royce await Melbourne in the next round, but with Finals Day looming fast will their be enough Saturdays left to play the fixture??????
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