Matlock 2s 34 - 7 Melbourne 2s

Following Long Eaton 2nds crying off, but oddly their 3rds still playing Ilkeston we accepted a pool match at Matlock on Thursday. We had a good team for the first match of the season and pre season had had a positive effect on fitness etc
The only issue was the lack of front row by Deano and Jordan bravely volunteered to prop.
This was the strongest team fielded by Melbourne 2nds for a few years and it was great to see members of the first team squad joining us.
Most of the players were at the ground on time and we had our lovely new shirts to try on. Some people had to play out of position, Mike Sinclair in the centres, Booko back out on the wind and Dale at fly half, but it all looked ok.
Not the greatest warm up in the world but if we compare this years first game with that 12 months ago, the progress was obvious with no elderly players being pressed into action and we had substitute’s!
The game started in perfect conditions, it was a pretty even start, Melbourne’s back row turning over some ball, the experimental scrum holding out and the ever stylish Dale putting in some nice kicks.
The Melbourne Coaching staff started a friendly chat with the Matlock coach who told him that the team was not as strong as usual as some of the regular 2nds were missing!! They had clearly not entirely told the truth when they went in the pool and were looking for an easy game. They were definitely the 2nds who played against Derby 2nds etc week in week out. They are there fore in pennant 1 whilst we are in pennant 4 north. A bit like Man City pretending to Oxford United that they are Altringham.
After 10 minutes Melbourne won a clean scrum but the ball shot out a bit and was picked up for a slightly dubious Matlock try 5-0 this was followed by a good period for Melbourne the pack working well and Karl, Dale, Snowey, and Mike Sinclair giving as good as they got, Mike Sinclair palying out positon looked very strong with good tackles and strong runs.
Kurtis was also playing well , as strong and fast as always but finding support and never loosing the ball away from support.
Guy Cooper came on on for Josh Rice who was tired
Joe Bryant had a fight against 3 or 4 people twice his size, but made the most noise
On 19 minutes the ball was tapped in the Melbourne line and went lose Matlock latched onto it and scored again 10-0. Even though most people thought Kurtis bundled the scored into touch
We raised our game for the rest of the half and spent good time in the Matlock Half without either side threatening to score.
Really a very good half, it shows how well we had played that most players were disappointed to be loosing against a team 3 league above us
The difference between the two teams was really that Matlock had the pace to capitalise on our errors, they had not actually created anything, but they did have some big runners who stayed low to the ground and were hard to tackle.
For the second half we got the Cresswell Sisters on and Guy swapped with Josh Rice.
The ref did not give us a lot of slack and we were penalised a lot more than Matlock, we did not get the rub of the green. Matlock were very good and influencing him at key moments.
There were some nice kicks from Will Cresswell but in a traditional 2nds game you would expect the odd full back fumble or comedy moment, but Matlock were too good and they retrieved the ball. Our own full back Sean the sheep had a faultless game and never dropped anything.
We were coming to it when after 15 minutes a passed was intercepted and Matlock ran the length of the pitch to score 15-0. And then two minutes later a kcik did not find touch and the Matlock winger ran through a number of tackles from his own 22 to make it 20-0
At this point Josh Rice smashed his knee into Dave Porters nose, Josh’s Knee was OK fortunately but Dave can now breath through an extra hole.
Matlock had scored 4 tries from our mistakes, but we had never really looked like scoring, we could huff and puff all we liked but Matlock did not need to do too much more than wait for an error.
Matlock then made it 27-0 with their first non turnover try of the game, after some sustained pressure one big runners cut inside and skipped past quite a few tackles to score.
With 30 minute of the 2nd half good the highlight for Melbourne when Dale slipped the ball to Booko who ran the length of the pitch to score under the posts, he may had put his foot in touch (3 times) but the linesman did not spot it.
Conversion by Will Cresswell. 27-7
With 10 to go New Zealand Freddy Snead (the Duneaden Flyer) joined out back row, and despite having deano’s somewhat larger shorts on made a huge tackle and ran about enthusiastically
Matlock scored with the last move of the game to make the final score 34-7
All In all a bit cheeky of Matlock to go in the pool and to take a game with us, pretty fantastic that we competed so well and that our make shift scrum did so well. Respect to Jordan especially.
Every one played well, Chris Williams was a Lion, the Back row aggressive, Kurtis had a very good game, Dale kicked very nicely but MOM for me is Mike Sinclair playing out of positon and putting people on their ass and making good breaks
Next week Dronfield 2nds at home in the league 3 pm kick off