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Melbourne 2nds 32 vs 0 Dronfield |
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Written by Simon Brandon
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Saturday, 13 January 2007 |
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Melbourne played with a strong wind in their favour in the first half on a pitch that resembled a bog in places. The Dronfield side were a lot different to the side that Melbourne beat earlier in the season.
Match Report Melbourne fielded Greg at prop, Blakey at scrum half (the first time he had ever played there) and Anthony at full back. Bob had his prop in all sorts of trouble, Coxy at hooker took Dronfields ball at will in the first half, Nick Parkes partnered Nige in the second row. Bompey, Rich Bennett and Huddo made up the back row. Pete Ilott and Gary Yates played centre outside Fully, with wings of Bakes, Charlie and Anthony at full back.
Melbourne played steadily in the first half (with a strong wind behind them) slowly building up a 32 point lead.
Coxy scored first from a neat forward drive from a lineout. 5-0. Fully then scored from close range, converting for 12-0.
2 penalties followed from Fully, including one from the half way line. 18-0. From a penalty on the Dronfield line, Nige opted for a scrum, with Pete Ilott scoring next. Fully converted. 25-0. The final try was the best. From a scrum, Rich Bennett picked up and drove, the ball recycled quickly to Blakey, who fed Fully. Fully passed to Pete who held the ball up, with Fully looping and taking the pass from Pete. Fully gave a simple draw and pass to Gary Yates who ran in from 30 yeards untouched. Fully converted for 32-0.
Dronfield hardly got out of their own half, and only handling errors kept the score down.
Obviously the second half was going to be different. Dronield immediately pressurised but were held out. Fully had a bit of a chat with the Dronfield '10' which continued for a while. Dronfield kept pressurising without really threatening, and Melbourne just had to plug away, making hard yards with Rich, Chris, Pete and Gary all running well, converting possession into small gains. A couple of late breaks nearly resulted in scores for Melbourne, but they were not to be.
On the whole, a good game. Everybody played well. The first half gave Melbourne the points on the board, and to hold the second half to 0-0 was very good indeed. A good referee as well, who kept good control on the game.
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