After last weeks cancelled fixture Melbourne travelled to Nottingham to face Casuals who we knew would be fired up after a heavy loss to Barton last week. Euen Holden was leading the side for the first time this season and there was also a couple of late changes that saw Nigel Breakwell coming into the second row and Peter Welsh and Matt Smith dropping into the back row.

Match Report

Melbourne kicked off with the wind behind them and immediately put Casuals under pressure with a scrum deep inside their own 22. It soon became apparent that the Melbourne scrum was too powerful and Casuals had to resort to some desperate kicking to clear their grounds. Where Melbourne had the upper hand in the scrums Casuals dominated the lineouts with good clean ball from the front of the line.

Melbourne started to make a few in roads and test the Casuals defence and were unlucky not to finish off a blind side move when the ball was dropped in the last pass with the line beckoning. The first score of the afternoon did however go to Melbourne with Euen Holden kicking a penalty.

Casuals hit back almost immediately with a series of penalties pushing them deep inside the Melbourne 22. A short lineout that was missed by all the jumpers but quick reactions from the Casuals centre saw him gather the ball and cut through the defence to score under the posts.The conversion was good to give Casuals a 7:3 lead.

The rest of the half was mainly played between the two 10mtr lines with both defences standing strong, with 5 minutes to go before half time and Casuals on the attack they were reduced to 14 men when their flanker was sin-binned for stamping. Melbourne found good field position from the penalty, won quick line out ball and released the backs, eventually being tackled into touch 5 metres from the Casuals line. Nigel Breakwell stole the line out ball and Melbourne drove for the line, Jake Oxspring spotted the gap on the blind side and put Ian Lucas in for a try in the corner. Euen Holden slotting a perfect conversion to give Melbourne a 10:7 half time lead.

The second half kicked off with the wind now in Melbournes faces and immediately from the restart Illdiscipline gifted Casuals a penalty to bring the scores level at 10:10.

The second half was played in a similar manner to the first with no side gaining any real advantage in open play, Melbourne still dominated the scums and Casuals had the upper hand in the lineouts. A few Melbourne players thought they could referee the game better than the man in the middle and gifted Casuals a few penalties that were kicked wide of the posts.

As the half pushed on it was Melbourne who seemed to be finding the gaps with Ashley Stringer making good ground up the wings, a three man overlap was also not used when Pop Lakin went on the attack.

With time ticking on and both defences looking to be winning the day a draw seemed to be on the cards until the referee awarded a penalty to Casuals just outside the Melbourne 22mtr. The penalty was successful giving Casuals a 13:10 lead with only a few minutes remaining.

The remainder of the game was played out without incident resulting in a loss to Melbourne. This was a game that could quite easily have gone Melbournes way if they had taken their chances.

Next week is a rearranged league fixture at home to Rolls Royce. Could everybody who is not going on Deans Stag do please let Euen Holden or Chris Fulton know of your availability.