Melbourne lose to local rivals

TFThe return pennant fixture between Melbourne 2's and Donnington had been eagerly awaited, after the tense thriller at Donnington earlier in the year, this was also the first visit of donnington to the cockshut lane arena after 4 matches at their place with 2 wins each.

Melbourne had a reasonable team, but a total lack of front row, caused by Prop bilght and call ups to the firsts, and in was kind of Donningotn to let the game go ahaead with uncontested scrums.

The Melbourne pack boasted 7 back row players and only one player over 13 stone, but it weas young and mobile and we had pretty pacy backs.

We had a few returning students, Sam, Fin and Elliot and special Guest Saul, along side, Alex D, Jake C Dave Porter, Pip Day (a smidge over 13 stone) and in the backs we had Snowey, Tommy Line, Al H, Joe Grimwood, Sean the Shep, Jo Thompson, Deano, Rich Woodburn, and Nathan Bishop.

There was strong wind blowing away from the changing rooms and Donnington got to play with it in the first half.

The briefing before kick off, was to try to stop the donnington mauls and catch and drives and to expect to absorb a bit of pressure but be able to break out.

From the kick off, it was clear this was not entirely true, Donnington did not play as they usually do, they passed the ball about a bit, and tried to bring in the wingers etc, but oddly when they tries to drive etc, they were held up by Melbourne, and in the lose Melbourne were able to counter ruck pretty effectively and even drive Donnington off the ball.

This being said the territory was all Donnington, Melbourne could not get anywhere the Donnington 22 and they used the wind, well without really looking like scoring. The one player on the Melbourne team that made a few breaks was Al Hollingsworth but each time he broke there was no support and a penalty was given away for holding on.

Elliot was everywhere tackling his heart out. but the exected forward dominance for Donnington, or the pacy breaks by Melbourne did not come.

On the balance of play Donnington deserved to get something and it came in a slightly odd way, with a scrum and the ball going quickly out to the narrow side where the Donnington wing skipped past a few tackles to score.

Then probably the defining moment of the match, Al H, was tackled and looked to have damaged himself badly., although it was not as bas as first feared he could not continue and probably our main source of line breaks and creativity had gone.

7-0 at half time and it felt that if we could use the wind in the 2nd half we might get a win, (but sadly it was not to be)

From the kick off we failed to clear our lines (when a big boot whould have made 60 yards) and from a series of drives Donnington rumbled over from the first attack of the 2nd half 12-0.

This dominance that Donnington had with the wind in the first half was not repeated, too often Melbourne used up its energy and reserves of pace trying to run across the pitch rather than forward and Donnnington had the bulk of the territiory.

Melbourne gave away the bulk the penalties, all match, this was a little odd as the ref kept chuntering about the constant pressure from Donnington to award them but then did exactly what they asked. In the end Dave Porter probably took one for the team when he went offside near our line and got a yellow, from the resulting line out, Alex Dawson tapped Donnington ball, (nicely) but it bobbed in front of Tommy line who refused to dive on it and Donnington did, to make it 17-0 with 25 to go.

Melbourne then huffed and puffed a lot, Tommy went on a few runs, (a bit sideways) as did Saul, and we had more ball and more territory, Sean the sheep went on a few good runs but was always making them from 60 yards out, and would run out of puff. In the end Tommy did manage to run around everyone, and possibly due to some slack lines manship was not judged to have put a foot out, he converted his own try 17-7 with 10 to go. Really Donnington held on comfotably to make it 17-7 at full time.

All in all a game that did not run to form, we got Donnington on a dry and wide pitch, without scrums and we came up short, Donnington were far more expansive and although this did not result in any scores it was a good game to watch. Melbourne did better in mauls and rucks than we expected and did fine in the line out.

In the end we lacked anyone who makde decisive breaks and as I have requently said in these reports over the past couple of years,

Donnington defend well and the back three dont make mistakes. We rarely put together more than one phase

All in all a fair result

Great to see snowey playing again and tommy looking hard with his scar.

Man of the match for Melbourne Elliot by some way