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After last week's win over league leaders Rolls Royce had to face up to the leagues bottom club Chesterfield who have yet to win this year. After two massive games Melbourne had to stay focussed and not slip up. Whilst for Chesterfield I guess they had nothing to lose.
Match Report
Melbourne had a couple of changes with Keir Biggins and Ian Lucas dealing with an erection at roller world and Stinger returning from holiday. This meant the team only traveled with one sub and Rich Bennett stepped up into the number 8 shirt. The Chesterfield team looked a deal larger than us but also did not look quite as fit, Melbourne elected to kick with the wind and sun in the first half, on a pitch which was quite sticky. Chesterfield kicked off and did not make ten yards and the game began in earnest with a scrum to Melbourne. The game was a bit shapeless Chesterfield offered very little threat and gave away a lot of penalties but Melbourne did not dominate completely. Chesterfield pushed up quickly in the backs and prevented us from playing, sometimes they were pinged for off side but I think the ref really got tired of whistling. The Melbourne forwards were in the ascendancy being quicker to the ball and as usual being able to turn over a fair amount of Chesterfield Ball. Melbourne had the bulk of the territory and this eventually yielded 2 penalties for Euan 6-0 but Melbourne had not really looked like getting a try. About 20 minutes into the game Melbourne stepped up a gear and there were a number of near tries, Judgie refusing to pass to Fully when clean through and Matt brown bundled out a yard short. Chesterfield were pumped up and taking pride in their efforts. Eventually from a set move where the play was switched back to a waiting herd of forwards, Matt Brown scored an unconverted try. 11-0 Euan had a few more goes at Penalties but unusually missed. from a restart Pete Welsh was taken out late and damaged him self but as we had no subs had to stay on but groaned a lot. 11-0 at half time and really we were not playing all that well, the 2nd half started better with a more aggressive attitude from Melbourne, it was also clear that the Chesterfield pack was getting very tired. And repeatedly going off side. Soon Melbourne scored again this time Rich Bennett picking up the ball from a forward drive near the line and going over near the posts again unconverted 16-0. Shortly afterwards Euan got another penalty and made it 19-0. In the scrums Melbourne did OK against a much bigger pack, winning their own ball, and in the lines apart from cock up on lifting, won our ball and much of Chesterfields. Melbourne tried the same type of driving mauls as we did against Rolls Royce but by and large Chesterfield were just too big. The game was getting a bit looser now and Melbourne were making a few more inroads in the backs, with Stringer having a try disallowed and Chesterfield making some good tackles out wide. It also got a bit punchier. Chesterfield did seem to spend a lot of time injured and usually after any good passage of play their would be a five minute rest. In the end Melbourne who were having the better of things by far now, including the towering figure of Merve taking good line out ball, scored again a set line out move saw Pete Birchall crash over from 2 yards out 24-0 Melbourne Had a couple of more penalty chances but failed to convert, by the last 10 minutes the Chesterfield off side play was getting a little outrageous and eventually after one particularly bad one, the ref blew us and the Chesterfield number 8 refused to play, actually saying ' I am not playing any more' fortunately he did not take his ball with him, but at the same time as this was taking place another Chesterfield player damaged a shoulder and the game was called off with 5 minutes to go. Final score 24-0 Melbourne did not play as well as in the past two weeks, we were fit, did the basics quite well but were not all that fired up, Chesterfield played their hearts out tackled well and never gave up. If the kicks had gone over the and couple of decisions had gone our way the margin of victory would have been wider Next week Ripley Rhinos in the Cup Team- Birchall
- Lakin
- Lowson
- Judge
- Walsh
- Macer
- Barr
- Bennett
- Devany
- Holden
- Middleton
- Foster
- Fulton
- Brown
- Sylvestor
- Stringer
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