Melbourne win well

Melbourne 2nds 96 West Bridgeford 3rds 5

Bingham had cried off in the pennant fixture so at short notice West Bridgeford 3rds kindly stepped in at late notice for a friendly, West Bridgeford had beaten us narrowly at their place earlier in the year, and had been the only team to out play us in the backs, with a couple of very special players (who we later found out played for Doncaster). So we felt it would be a tight game.

At 5 pm on Friday we had a good team and a large squad but a number of late call ups to the 1st and a few bits of miss communication left us with 16 players, Ed was wrestling a cow in the top field, Nigel had rested and was shopping, and Chris Fulton had a dribbly bottom. But Pip day was fit again, Sam Stuart made a welcome return, as did Chris Williams and Alex Dawson was available, and leading scorer Kurtis with some heavy strapping was Back.

Lots of respect to the Brave 2nd team regulars who stepped up for the 1sts

West Bridgeford had a few vets playing, I think both teams wanted to play the game in the right spirit

Josh Doyle was a bit late arriving in his smart new yellow corsa, (which he glanced at constantly during the game.) so we kicked off without a hooker, but we were soon a full compliment.

The first few minutes were fairly even, our scrum was working well, but most of the play was in midfield.

After 5 ish minute Devon took a quick tap penalty and the ball was eventually fed to Will Butler who ran in under the posts 7-0

After 10 minutes Alex Lloyd caught a kick and ran the length of the pitch to score 14-0 and then immediately from the restart, Joe Bryant caught the ball ran it back and fed Chris Williams to score again under the posts, Tommy line kicked to make it 21-0

West Bridgeford then had a period of pressure and there were good turnovers including a monster by Sam Stuart, West Bridgeford were keeping the ball but moving backwards, eventually they were turned over in open play and Booko ran the length of the pitch to score again 28-0

There was the a pause in the scoring but Booko collected the ball ran the length of pitch again to score 35-0 then immediately from the Kick off booko set off again and fed Tommy Line 42-0

One of the match highlights was Will Butler on the hoof boshing a very large West Bridgeford player and landing him on his ass,

With 10 to go in the half Tony Day set off on a run, and after some nice hands the ball got to Sam Stuart who could have scored but fed Kurtis, who has been starved of ball ran in his first 47-0 at half time.

At Half time we lent Booko to West Bridgeford who un known to us had been playing with 14 for most of the half, Smithie came on Alex dawson and Matt Walker replaced Booko

The 2nd half was business as usual, Will Butler caught in the line, he fed, Devon who made a good break, a few passes and elderly centre Deano trundled over for try 54-0

2 minutes later Sam put behind his missed try in the first half and put in a side step to run in a try 61-0

4 minutes later and the ball ended up with Joe Bryant who attempted a swallow dive while scoring 68-0

The next 22 minutes we were a bit rubbish we really went down hill, our back row did not seem to turn over the ball that they had done all in the first 45 minutes, Joe Bryant was resting on the sideline ad West Bridgeford shows lots of spirit, but were not all that incisive with the ball they were winning,

Pip Day went off and Josh went to prop, with Smithie at Hooker and Alex Lloyd banged his knee and limped for the rest of the game

After 26 minutes of the half West Brdgeford had a sustained period of pressure, they had lots of ball but did not go forward very much, following a lot of very sharp tackles from Melbourne, but we gave away a lot of penatlites and in the end Booko beat Kurtis to score in the corner for West Bridgford 68-5

We then woke up again, Devon who seems to find space easily ran in a solo try 75-5 then Smithie Made a powerful run and few Sam Stuart to score again 82-5 and then one of the moments dean intercepted a pass on the half way line, all he had to do was run in the try but he opted to pass the ball to Matt Walker who did all the hard work 89-5 and finally as we tried to score 100 points devon fed Kurtis to get his second try 96-5 and the end of the match

All in all, we were much faster the West Bridgeford and as they could not dominate us in the pack we had plenty of ball, most of our tries came from turnovers, and for that a lot of credit must go to the back row, especially Joe Bryant.

Thanks to West Bridgeford for the game, and for playing in good spirit, we still have to play them again in the Pennant and I am sure it will be closer

The best thing was that despite having fewer players than normal the Melbourne team was full of class, the 2nd row of Sam and Chris was huge and may be very important in the tough games vs Derby vets etc, the front row was all the better for it, and we now have a back row that can turn over ball and feed our excellent backs.

Thanks to Booko for playing for West Bridgeford, the try count council met at the end of the game and voted unanimously that Bookos try against us does did not count in the end of season tally

MVP, Joe Bryan excellent but got it last week, Sam Stuart very good, Will Butler as always excellent, Tommy line and Devon looking like a good combo,Scott and Dean very stable in the centres and loads of pace out wide, but I am going for Joe Bryant again

Next week a week off and the Derby Vets at home followed by Christmas Drinks and jumpers