Melbourne turned up at Long Eaton on Wednesday evening to play this NLD semi final against League leaders Nott`s Casuals. The first problem was the refusal by the referee to allow the game to be played due to excess water on the pitch, after much forking and prodding of the pitch and then the arrival of sand to be put on the pitch we thought we were ready for the game to be confirmed as playable!!

Next problem was the Council official stating that it wasn't council sand and so couldn't be used - pitch and potentially match abandoned! After some frantic phone calls it was finally confirmed that we could use the flood-lit pitch at Derby RFC with a kick off at 21:00!!  Well done to the Casuals stalwarts for marking the pitch out at the last minute.

Euen Holden had been forced into a few changes to the side with Judge, Birchall, Middleton and Sylvester all unavailable, they were replaced by Breakwell, Stowell, Howard and Ilott respectively.

As the teams took the field a large crowd had gathered to cheer on both sides and also a few shouts for Notts Medics rang out from the touch lines, no ringers by any chance!!!

Melbourne started the game well and were soon camped deep in the Casuals 22 using their dominance in the scrum to put tremendous pressure on the Casuals defence with some drives for the line by Lucas, Devaney and Biggins.

This early pressure was absorbed by Casuals and they then started to test the Melbourne defence with wave after wave of attacking runners, some desperate defence from Howard, Fulton and Foster preventing a Casuals try, unfortunately Melbourne were creeping into off side positions and the referee was quick to award a series of penalties and subsequently the first point of the game 3:0 to Notts.

Soon after this the first of 5 yellow cards of the evening was shown to a player from both sides, to be honest this was not a game that really warranted any cards but the referee had set his stall out early and players were being penalised quickly and were not adapting to the referee and so there were a lot more penalties awarded.

Casuals eventually scored their first try of the evening after 25 minutes, having dragged the Melbourne defence from one side to the other their winger finished off a fine move to score near the posts, the conversion was good to take the score to 10:0.

Having allowed Casuals far too much possession in the first half, Melbourne finally finished the half on the attack, using their dominance in the scrums and rolling mauls Melbourne found themselves receiving the penalty decisions, quick thinking by Paul Devaney took him to within a few feet of the try line and the final pass just missing the support. Melbourne were awarded a penalty in front of the posts and a rare miss from Holden kept the half time score at 10:0

Although disappointed at being behind at the interval Melbourne were relieved that the score line didn't reflect the possession that Casuals had had during the first half and Holdens team talk was to start taking the game back to Casuals and getting the ball carriers into the game.

Melbourne did raise their game in the 2nd half and started to get better ball out to their backs with Ashley Stringer looking dangerous whenever he got the ball. Casuals didn't sit back and soon started to utilize their well drilled line outs to bring the ball carriers into Melbourne's mid-field and increased their lead when their fly-half  hit a well drilled drop-goal between the posts 13:0.

Casuals were then reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes after their flanker was sin-binned for yet another minor offence?  Casuals missed another couple of attempts at goal, the latter hitting the posts with Ian Lucas returning the ball out of the 22 and Holden clearing deep into the Casuals half. Melbourne then had their best period of the match and started to hit the rucks and tackles with far more ferocity.

Melbourne's first score of the night came from a scrum just in side the Casuals half, Melbourne drove the opposition pack off the ball and set off attacking the blindside, Stringer hit full pace and cut through two tackles before forcing his way over the try line to score just to the right of the posts. Holden converted to close the gap 13:7.

Casuals were back up to 15 men when Melbourne's Chris Fulton was shown the yellow card for what was described as a "reckless tackle"? This only seemed to fire the Melbourne players up even more and with the Melbourne supporters voices starting to be heard above the Casuals and Medics supporters the play was all in the Casuals 22. A good break from Keir Biggins took the ball upto the Casuals line, Paul Devaney passed blind to Matt Smith who found Lucas loitering on the wing to score in the corner, Holden missed the conversion but the score was now 13:12 with 7 minutes remaining.

A long re-start was dropped by Lucas and Melbourne never really managed to clear their lines, following a scrum and some direct drives into the Melbourne defence Casuals spun the ball wide for their winger to dive into corner, the conversion was missed 18:12 to Casuals.

Melbourne attacked again from the kick off and regained possession, a kick to the corner was illegally pushed into touch by the Casuals winger for a Melbourne penalty 5mtrs out, with a set move called Melbourne were  penalised for moving before the ball had been tapped and a scrum was awarded to Casuals who eventually cleared to touch. Paul Devaney was then yellow carded for the last few minutes of the game and eventually the referee blew up (22:35) for a Casuals 18:12 win and a place in the final against Barton.

Congratulations to Casuals for a very good competitive game and good luck in the final, Melbourne were disappointed but having not started playing until too late in the game could not be too down-hearted.

Next game is East Retford at home on the 12th April. This is the last league fixture of the season, Kick off is 3pm and a win could lift Melbourne to a 4th place finish in the league.