Melbourne fail to take chances

Melbourne made the long trip to Stamford this week still feeling the disappointment of narrowly losing out to a much-fancied Loughborough side in the opening fixture of their maiden season in Midlands 2. However, they left Stamford with feelings of frustration after throwing away a game that was theirs for the taking.

Although the official reassured everybody that he had recently refereed a Leicester U20’s match, nothing could remedy the disgust exhibited by Jack Fisher, amongst many, at the state of the home side’s diagonally sloping pitch. Jordan Hollis was also reprimanded pre-match for wearing dangerous football boots, a rookie mistake.

Bucking the usual trend, Melbourne started the game on the front foot – Keir Biggins won the ball from Euan Holden’s kick-off and, after applying solid pressure in Stamford’s 22, Euan kicked the visitors ahead with a penalty. Unfortunately for Melbourne, poor first-up tackling again proved to be an issue as Stamford’s barrel-chested outside centre bundled through midfield and set up a try out wide.

The contest proved to be a weird affair throughout and the first-half ebbed and flowed as Melbourne attempted to make headway up the slope. Left wing, Rob Foster, popped up on the opposite flank to complete a move started by Fisher’s excellent wide running line – Foster using his outside man, Hollis, as a dummy before handing off the covering defense to score close to the posts. Melbourne then went down to 14 men as Al Judge was sin-binned for throwing a punch that the referee definitely saw, citing the new ruling that if a gobby second row says something happened then it definitely did. The second row’s awful lineout chat continued to go unpunished throughout the match, much to the annoyance of the Melbourne full-back. Again, the match swung back in to the home side’s favour as their excellent scrum-half scored in the corner before Foster, again popping up on the right wing, scored another try out wide. The half time score was 18-15 to the home side after they slotted a penalty before the end of the half.

Some stern words from coach, Ian Masters, and citrus refreshment from a local primary school seemed to have the desired effect as Melbourne came out in the second half looking much more lively. From the off, Stamford were pinned back in their half, suffering from the lack of level ground provided by their pitch. Melbourne continued to apply pressure throughout the half but the match soon fell in to a vicious cycle – excellent set-piece, good yards made, knock on or fumble.

The referee managed to avoid dishing out a yellow card to Stamford as they repeatedly infringed by slowing the ball down and being caught offside but Melbourne, through some poor decision-making, continued to plunder good field positions. In-roads were being made, especially past Stamford’s angry little fly-half who began to advertise his skills as a turnstile, offering little in either attack or defense. Biggins found himself in the sin-bin after he was clocked by a 17 year old winger, much to his dismay.

The game changed when Fisher presented the ball to Stamford’s right winger after trying to find the returning Tommy Zoom on Melbourne’s flank and he raced through to score the only try of the half. Another Holden penalty ensured a bonus point for the visitors but the game ended with the newly promoted Stamford achieving their first win of the season.

Melbourne can take some positives into their first home match of the season, in two weeks time, against Melton Mowbray: solid line-out work from Dan Walker and Michael Lowery; excellent scrummaging from the front five; and a brilliant team spirit. However, Melbourne will feel that they conspired to beat themselves in a match that they should have won comfortably.

Ian Masters - MOTM Rob Foster but pushed all the way by Michael Lowery