Melbourne 42 - 14 Derby 3s

Melbourne 2s welcomed Derby 3s for a re-arranged Pennant game.

The preparation was upset by the non-communicating 1st XV taking the second XV shirts but this was rescued with the arrival of the yellow set in time for KO. Having played 28 players at Derby 3s 2 weeks ago, it was interesting to see only a few from that game and the Derby 3s seemed stronger too.

Everyone paid their match fees upto date so Playing Manager was very happy.

Melbourne started with Ballington, Parnall and Lamb. 2nd row of Lowson and Gale. Sparkes Lawson and Sam Stuart in the back row. Josh Toplis, returning from Uni at 9 with Foster 10. Centres were Vincent and Hollingsworth with a back 3 of Mallett, Martin and Ilott. Brill, Ramage, Debutant Joe Travers and Brough were the bench.

The seconds had the honour of playing in front of the new electronic scoreboard which also helped brighten the pitch on a dark day.

The warm up went well in the new T shirts (Ballington – you still owe me!!), despite the MRFC hierarchy kicking them off the football pitch.

The first 15 mins was a bit of a stalemate with both sides testing each other out. Derby certainly were better than 2 weeks ago and Melbourne had a bit more depth.

Dale Bilson turned up to support - late as usual just like when he is playing.

Melbourne had the better of the early exchanges with Sam Stuart making some great runs. The scrum struggled a bit against a big Derby front row, the lineout good as usual with Sparkes consistently picking out his man. Ballington was first to score bullocking over from short range. Foster followed this up with a penalty. 3 quick Trys followed after about half an hour, firstly from Martin, then Mallett scoring in the corner and finally and darting run and finish from Toplis.

Melbourne did have a period of defending on their own line and stole a couple of balls from tackle and maul to clear well.

Steve Hollingsworth (MRFC Heirarchy) and Jamie Bullock were both allowed to use the remote control on the scoreboard which they were both very happy about

The second half started with Brill changing for Ilott. Parnall (having a great game in the loose) scored soon followed by another from Mallett, who really needs to practice his swan dive. To save him the cost of potentially buying a hat trick Jug, he was replaced by Travers and Brough and Ramage saw game time too. Derby had a good 15 minute period scoring 2 converted Trys before Al Hollingsworth scored the final Try trying his best to stumble over the line and not make. Foster kicked 2 conversions and a penalty for 7 points and a 42-14 win.

Ref was good.

MOTM contenders
Sam Stuart for constantly making ground and line breaks, however finding every way possible not to provide a scoring pass – it was not him
Alex Parnall – great game – close to it
MOTM - Jake Ballington. Scored the first Try, Tackled well, scrummaged well and constantly a threat with ball in hand.

Next week – Paviors 3s away in a rearranged Pennant game

CHRISTMAS PARTY ON 16th DECEMBER