Melbourne beat Castle Donington 1s in Pennant

When the fixture list came out this looked like a good one for Melbourne 2nds as the firsts did not have a game, so there were going to be plenty of players about, however the cancelled fixture on the 20th of Dec meant that the firsts were playing and as with all post Christmas fixtures there were a number of players still on jollies in Australia and having tickly colds etc, we lost Al to the first at midnight on Friday , so there was a hurried look for backs on Saturday morning but Webbi from the colts and Jo from the under 8's stepped up to help out.

We knew Castle Donnington would be bigger than us, and it was fortunate that Chris Mansfield and Chris Stark were about to add some bulk to the pack. It was also Sinchi's last game before heading to the bright lights of london, and we had a couple of students, C Whitt, Fin and Lewis B available to us. All in all a pretty strong team.

Melbourne have only won once this year, but to me the team looked as good as the one that lost narrowly to Donnington last year in the league, it felt like it would be a close game.

Interestingly over 25% of the team were called Chris, this is the highest single Christian name %age since 5 daves played Long Eaton in 2003.

The pitch was in great condition dispite the rain and there was little breeze, all players apart from Sean (dribbly bottom) the sheep turned up in a timely manner and we were able to have a reasonable warm up.

We understand how Donnington play, big scrum and driven lineouts from 5 yards out, so all the talk before the game was of holding out own ball, getting out of our 22 even if it meant Donnington getting pocession and trying to compete in the line outs to prevent Donnington getting a drive on from clean ball. Also avoiding yellow and red cards was pretty important.

30 mins before kick off we found out that the firsts were cancelled so Al was able to rejoin and we were able to get Tony Day (2nd team vice captain) back onto the bench, little did we know he had not slept for 72 hours having been on a quiet night out and to all intenets and purposes usless.

The game kicked off and for the first few mintues Melbourne looked the more agressive, Sinchi was all over the place, turning over ball and driving forward as was Chris Stark, the backs did not see much of the ball but Melbourne looked OK, and it was clear the forwards were not going to loose much in the lose. The scrum also held firm.

After 5 minutes Donnington got the ball and won a line out about the 22 metre line, they through to the middle and annoyingly Melbourne did not challenge allowing Donningto to drive nearly 20 meters. there was some pretty dogged Melbourne defense and a failed kick to clear and Donnington soon had a 5 meter line, again they went to the middle, Melbourne chose not to compete and they drove over to score 5-0.

The next 15 minutes were mainly Donnington pressure, they recycle the ball well and dont give too many loose pass's etc, and do not kick much, on the other hand Melbourne won the ball back quite a lot but could not hold onto pocession for a long period. It seemed unlikely that Donnington could score from open play, but if they could get another clean line out ball, or 5 metre scum they would surely score again.

Sinchi was heroic at number 8 picking up the ball and driving when the scrum was under pressure, and there were a number of let off, particulally a 5 meter line out that was adudged not to have gone 5 yards. During this period I dont remember one clean break by Melbourne.

The after about 23 minutes, Melbourne did start to put some phases together for the first time in the game, Lewis Bowman made a few yards and took 4 or 5 Donnington guys out of the game, Sinchi popped up in Midfield making good yards and then Chris Stark finally broke some tackles to score 7-5 (coversion by Will Cresswell). Melbourne also missed a Penalty shortly afterwards.

Melbourne also came close to scoring when a kick through was fumbled and Kurtis apppeared like a exocet to almost score

For the last 15 of the half. it was pretty even with most of the play in the middle of the pitch. Melbourne did interfere with a couple of quick penalties and with 2 minutes to go in the half, Guy Cooper was sent to the bin. (not great against a strong pack)

Pip day also picked up a head wound and was replaced by the disorientated Tony Day

At half time Melbourne swapped some folk about, Jo came on for Webbi (thanks Webbi apprecaite the wing is not your thing) Jake Walker came on for Sparksi, Al for Sean, and Fin for Chris Wiseall

Despite the fact that Melbourne only had one player over 26, we were not injecting too much pace into the game. we needed to take more quick kicks and speed things up.

Most of the changes at Half time were pretty seemless, but Al did drop the first kick he received which cheered up the Melbourne 1st team watching and making supportive comments from the Bank.

Being a man light in the pack against donnington is not great but Melbourne got through it OK, probably on balance Donnington had more territory , but not in the areas that matter. Guy Cooper came back on.

There was then an odd ten mintues where Donnington got two kickable penalties, this was a bit daft as at the time there was no real threat to the Melbourne try line and we were holding Donningotn well, one was missed but the 2nd limped over to make the score 8-7 with 20 to go. I had a distinct feeling of deja vue and sensed a narrow defeat, but the players stayed calm.

It was inevitable that Melbourne would be and fitter and we were getting to the break down faster

Pip day came back on for Tony after a 20 minute cameo and Chris Wiseall came on for a injured Guy Cooper

Melbourne then began to up their game and they did so by taking a few more risks, for the first time in the game we started putting in a few grubber kicks and being a bit more expansive, Lewis made a couple of breaks and the Electric Kurtis broke a few tackles, Starky made some good runs and Jo on the wing has a couple of chances. with 15 to go Melbourne won a Penalty converted to make the score 10-8.

The next ten minutes were mainly Melbourne, Maybe Donnington had to be a bit more exspansive and attack from deeper but there were a number of chances for Melbourne to score, a kick through and chase etc

In the end a little kick found space and Lewis Bowman showed his pace to touch down 15-8 with 7 to go.

The last 7 minutes seeemd to go on for ever. Donnington had the ball for the entire period but never really made any progress, Melbourne put in tackle after tackle and mainly Donnington went sideways or backwards apart from the odd drive from the younger prop. The moment I felt confident we would win was when we pushed Donnington off their own scrummage ball with 5 to go

Fanasic tackles from everyone, but a superb one from Dean and Jake Walker, stood out. Generally speaking there would be 15 Melbourne defenders ready to tackle and 11 or Donnington players on their feet with 4 getting slowly up.Sinchi got a blow in the nuts and laid down for a while.

The game went into overtime,. and Donnington kept coming, they held on to some pretty amazing pass's during this time, but in the end they were held in midfield and eventually gave away a scrum to make it a final score of 15-7

Fantastic performance by all Melbourne Players, the front 5 did their job in the scrums, the back row were huge and great work by all the pack in defence,

Chris Stark made good Ground and Sichi was huge at the breakdown in open play and at the back of the scrum. Will was solid at Scrum Half and Deano, Chris and Lewis tackled well and Lewis was a threat with the ball in hand. Kurtis is scarily quick.

It remains a mystery how we never manage to run round Donnington, maybe they are great at defense or maybe we just slow down our play against them.

MVP tough one, and would like to give it to everyone, besides Tony, but Chris Stark gets it, as Sinchi has already got one (my wife thought deano)

Significant Win for Melbourne beating on of the league’s top teams, and getting some vital points on the board to thive in this league we need to raise our game to this level everyweek.

Deby 3rds away next week. Lets get another win.