Melbourne 14 - 6 Southwell

Melbourne beat Southwell in th cold and the mud

A superb effort from Melbourne against 2nd placed Southwell.

Coach Matt Derbyshire had to make a series of changes with W judge, Howard, Coyne, lowery, lowery, Lakin and nightingale all injured.
Ed Whitten drafted in and a debut for josh Toplis. The returning Burchell and Benstead on the bench.

Tough game in difficult conditions with the thermometer just breaking freezing and heavy mud on the pitch.
Southwell started stronger and Melbourne defend good as usual. Southwell found it difficult to break the line despite going through the phases. Melbourne were more fluent with ball in hand and went close early on.
Southwell opened scoring with a penalty. 0-3
Melbourne pushed back and ed Whitten scored a try off a great short ball.
Melbourne also missed a couple of other chances in the first half.
Stroke of half time saw a Southwell penalty for a 6-5 lead.

Second half saw the pitch get heavier with Melbourne making the better chances. Bothe defences were strong. Fine one on one tackle and error forced by Joe Stuart from south wells only really significant line break.

Euan kept the scoreboard ticking with 3 penalties to stretch the lead to 14-5 and final score.

MOTM Joe Stuart
Credit to josh Toplis on his debut - never phased. Sound defence and good decision making.
Great team performance from all 18 and top if the league 11 points clear.