Match Report

The team was similar to that used in the previous warm up games, including the new younger set of backs and familiar forwards with Nathan Goodyear making his debut at as first team and Steve Bell and Nigel Breakwell joining in the back and 2nd row.

New captain Merve got the warm up well organized and finished on time to play in near perfect conditions.

The only issue was the lack of a ref and so an Ansty played stepped in to fill the breach and did a pretty good job, especially in talking to the players in off side positions and warning them (we ignored him quite bit though)

The Anstey team did not look all that fearsome or large it looked liked it would be an even contest, from the start the game settled into a regular pattern, Melbourne better in the lose but giving away a lot of penalties withMelbourne having the majority of the procession.

In the tight Melbourne had very few line outs of our own (only 3 all game) but Anstey failed to make use of their put in, throwing to the 4th man in the line and then knocking the ball backonly for the Melbourne back to regain procession, at the the front of the line Nigel Breakwell caught his own ball and disrupted Ansteys'

In the scum Melbourne still need to find an answer in the front row and although Melbourne won most of their own ball it was not steady, . Nathan Hooked cleanly though.

Melbourne made steady progress towards the Anstey line for long periods only to give away 2 or 3 penalties on the trot and give it away, in the backs Melbourne seemed to have the better of it and Anstey showed little attacking intent.

Merve worked well to rip the ball from Anstey hands on several occasions.

Eventually Melbourne scored, good forward work secured the ball and then the ball was passed through several sets of hands in a sweeping backs move for Rob Foster to score in the centre 5-0. I think Melbourne felt confident more tries would come and from the restart Pete Walsh caught the ball and began a forwards move where he ball went through nearly all forwards hands and ended up in the Anstey 22, a penalty was awarded to Melbourne but was missed.

Melbourne then gave series of Penalties away and Anstey worked their way up to the Melbourne 22 and got another penalty that they converted 5-3.

From the off one Anstey player no7 had seemed to be more interested in fighting than playing and just before half time a scrap with the Melbourne Scrum half resulted in them both being sin binned. Melbourne wanted to score after this and did, more good team work saw Rob Foster Draw the Anstey Defense in and set Stringer free for his first try 10-3 at Half time, but really of the kicks had gone over it would have been 17-3 and this would have been a fairer reelection.

The 2nd half got underway and if anything Melbourne had more ball and controlled play better,

Anstey made the error of handing the ball to Stringer who did the forest gump thing and ran and ran past lots of players to score a try under the posts 17-0, Melbourne also won an easy Penalty 20-0

Melbourne continued to press and from good forward work the ball was recycled and passed out to stringer on the wing to score again, sadly behind the refs back a fight had broken out between the Melbourne back row and the no7 from Anstey following a nasty stamping on kiers forehead.

The ref said he wanted to call the game off but that would have meant a return to Anstey that neither team really wanted, Merve came over all Kofi Annan and managed to get the ref to play on.

Euan converted to make it 27-3, and the rest of the game was played out with out too much incident apart from a 30 yard run by Deano and Rob Foster, despite his denials, missing a 3 man overlap.

In the last 10 minutes Paul Macer came on for Kier and the game effectively over, Anstey tried to get a conciliation try but Melbourne defended well and eventually cleared their lines.

Final Score 27-3

Its hard to know if this was a good Melbourne display or a poor Anstey effort (it was probably a bit of both). Nathan and Nigel played well and Stringer's pace was electric, Melbourne will probably not come against a team as badly organized at Anstey in the League this year but you can only play against the opposition you have.

Good drinking afterwards, especially birthday boy Nathan and his Yard of Ale which he regurgitated like a gannet within minutes of drinking it.

Next week 's dress code is 'shirts that Deano would be happy wearing'

Team

1. Stowell
2. Goodyear
3. Lowson
4. Breakwell
5. Walsh
6. Biggins
7. Bell
8. Barr
9. Watts
10. Holden
11. Stringer
12. Foster
13. Devanny
14. Middleton
15. Sylvestor
16. Macer
17. Brown