Melbourne lose in the mud amidst a thunderstorm

Trying to write this with out a feeling of sour grapes or the taste of a little bit of sick in the back of the throat

Melbourne knew they had to win this one if they were going to get promoted from the league. We had played each other twice already and the two teams have contrasting styles and very different body shapes.

Melbourne being smaller, younger and faster, and Donnington being bigger stronger and more experienced

The game had to be played at Donnington as the Melbourne pitch was water logged. It’s good that Donnington agreed to this, but a shame as the pitch is very compact/narrow

Melbourne had a good, team, probably a bit stronger than the last time we had played, with Jo Bryant in the back row, Devon at Scrum half and Fulli who had missed the last encounter back at fly half, Dale Bilson was also included. We had plenty of subs and all turned up on time.

In the past two games Donnington had scored all their points from inside the 10 meter line and all but one from a set piece so Melbourne realised they had to counter this, so decided we would mix up the line outs, with short lines and long throws and also try to kick the ball upfield a long way rather than concede lineouts in the 22. We believed that Donningotn would be unable to run a try in from open play.

We did have a plan to have a few bigger more mature guys as subs in case Donningotn applied their bulk in the last 20, but they were all away on a flower arranging course,

We also had to make sure we did not concede penalties that would allow Donnington to kick to the corners.

The pitch was wet and we kicked off against a strong wind, from the off it was clear that Melbourne had called it right we were aggressive in the rucks and recylcled the ball well, Will was catching lots of line out ball, and for some reason the usual catch and drive ball from Donnington was not working well and lots of Donnington ball was going to ground. The ref was good for us, he penalised donningotn a lot for slowing the ball down etc.

Melbourne missed a Penalty, but had most of the ball and looked far more dangerous, in the first 10 minutes Donningon were kept out the Melbourne 22, all good.

After 13 minutes Melbourne got the Tommy Line a t Full back broke and passed the ball to devon who was able to evade 4 or so tackles to score under the posts 7-0 (conversion byFulli)

Melbourne continued to play well and by and large dominate, Will Butler went on a few good runs an it looked like eventually we would score again, why we did not was largely due to the Donnington Full back who is very good at tackling and where Will/Tommy/Devon are used to running around people the full back never let us get away.

Melbourne were jsut quicker to ball, in the slippery conditions there were lots of mis handling etc, and even Dale was prepared to sacrifice his hair and conditioned skin to dive on the ball in the lose.

After about 20 minutes the weather turned nasty and the ref took us off the pich for a 17 minute break, in the changing room the mood was very positive,

After the restart melbourne had a few nervous moments and Donnington won a scrum agains the head, but Melbourne still had most of the territory, The influential Donnington Fly Half and Fulli were trading kicks but in safe areas,

Highlight of this period was two players being budled into touch and ed, who fell over (ed was missing as a cow had trodden on his foot)

After 34 minutes Devon was held by the Donnington fly half after the ball had moved down the line and Devon pushed him away, this reaulted in 3 large donnington players laying into Devon, and Devon retaliated, he and the Donnington Flyhalf were shown yellow cards, (dont understand why all the players who through the punches were not treated the same)

Devon is important player for Melbourne but so is the Donnington Fly half and the final minutes of the half were pretty tame.

Melbourne were on a high, all things remaining equal and with the wind we thought we could win.

In the 2nd half we brought on Jake Walker, Dave Porter, and Steve Bell for Elliot, Jordan and Tom Cresswell , Jack Pearce for Dean in the centre and Booko for Sam on the wing. All the substitute players had covered themselves in Glory, Elliot in his first donington game had been impressive and Jordan must now be the best hooker in the club. We were going to play with what felt like a 2 try wind in the 2nd half, but it did die down a bit.

Castle Donnington seemed to have bulked up their team and the front row was larger and stronger, but the half started ok with Steve Bell to the fore. Melbourne still went on the better runs, but Donnigton pushed us off our own ball and our line stopped working so well, with quite a few not straights and some overthrows

The ref if anything penalised Donnington even more allowing melbourne to relieve the pressure

Still it was pretty even we managed to prevent Donnington from getting ball in our 22 for a set peice, but they were getting closer, the Donningtons fly halfs kicking was getting better and we were beginning to be pegged back.

Disaster struck after 13 minutes, Tony Day got grabbed by the Helmet by a Donnington front row player who bent him over and tried to punch him, unfortunately Devon was nearest to the incident and he tried to split it up, he raised an arm and was yellow carded with the Donnington forward. Devon was there fore sent off.

The next 10 were ok for Melbourne, the Donnignton scrum did not work as well and Melbourne could push them back and we sorted out our backs out well.

However after 10 minutes things changed Donnington had a man advantage, Fulli got a blow to the head and came off and we began to lose out poise and shape. It was now a matter of holding on for 17 minutes. First we conceded a penalty and Donnignton kicked into our 22, we defended quite bravely but Donnington are just much bigger than us, and following a series of Penalties one of their palyer bundled over from 3 yards.

Melbourne had to get the ball and keep it, but failed to

A couple of minute later and Donnington attacked again and for the Donnignton winger the moment he waits for each week arrived with an accurate cross kick from the fly half, he received it and scored, but was a little mysteriously ruled off side 7-7 with 10 to go.

It was all now Donnington and with a few minutes to go for the first time Melbourne did not kick down the pitch and the ball went out on the 5 yard line somehow that became a scrum and a the ball bounced off our front row and straight out the back of the scrum on the donnington side they went blind and score 14-7

The last 3 minutes were uneventful, Melbourne really had not looked like they could score for the final 17 minutes.

So we lost, we tried very hard, but that probably means Donnington are promoted, we had the better of the game for 63 minutes, but in other match’s we have scored 4 and 5 tries in that time and so could ride periods of pressure by bigger team, but Donnington know how to defend on their narrow pitch and the full back was great.

If it has been dry, if we had been at home, if we had kept 15 players on the pitch we might well have won.

The ref helped us for most of the game so we really can not complain about the sending, off, if another player rather than devon had been the closest it woudl have been fine.

This was Will Butlers last game for us for 18 months, he has been a great team member and will be missed

Sorry we did not go back to the pub, but we could not face it, after that match.

MVP, lots of hero’s the usauly suspects Jo Bryant, Tony Day, Devon , Fullis kicking but this week it goes to Tommy line at Full back, he was calm, never put a foot wrong and was our most dangerous runner

Odd thing sport, as a man with a pretty dull life, 3 kids and a dodgy bladder I was more excited, euphoric, disappointed and pumped by that 80 minutes than I have been at work for 10 years, I guess that is why we get involved. Hope that Donnington will play us again, even when they are in the exulted height’s of the Pennant league 3 next year.

Lets pick ourselves up and enjoy the rest of the season !!