Mellish Line up:
A. Fretwell, Rowbottom, Butcher, Mason(c), Greathead, B. Fretwell, Morley,
Justice, Pickering, Cocking, Wheldon, McConnell, Myers, Bratley, Walden,
Harris, Stevenson.
Tries: Bratley, B Fretwell, Justice.
Conversions: Mason (1)
Pens: Mason (2) |
Mellish went into their final league game of the season with a few
un-available players due to injury or un-availability.
In stepped Bri Fretwell into the back-row for his 1st team debut
start & was joined by Phil ‘Fossil’ Justice in his
last ever league game before moving into his coaching role next
season. Young Ross Pickering also made his debut at scrum-half as
well as Jordan Rowbottom stepping into the hooker role due to regular
hooker Phil Scott being injured.
Despite the changes to the team skipper Dave Mason was confident
Mellish could win the game ensuring the team finished 4th in the
league.From the first whistle Mellish showed their intent by using
the pack to hammer away at Ashby & then release the backs with
quick ruck ball.
Ashby withstood this barrage for the first 5 mins then adopted the
same approach against Mellish for a 10 minute period, Mellish defended
well until finally succumbing to the pressure & conceding an
un-converted try.
This spurred Mellish into action with the pack driving straight
down the middle from the kick-off & using quick ruck ball for
the big runners to batter their where upfield.
In the Ashby 22, young Ross Pickering used Sean McConnell with a
miss pass which he beat one defender then off-loaded to big Aaron
Myers who ran straight at Ashby knocking off 3 defenders before
off-loading to Bri Fretwell who charged over the line to score on
his debut, Mason missed the conversion.
With the scores locked at 5 – 5 all, Mellish began to take
control of the game.
Indiscipline by Ashby resulted in a penalty being awarded &
the ref marched the Ashby team back a further 10 metres for gobbing
off, Mason elected for goal & knocked the resulting kick over
for a half-time lead of 8 – 5.
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With the slope in Mellish’s
favour for the second period, Mellish kicked for the corners & rushed
the defence by rush defence resulting in plenty of possession.
The forwards carried on rucking & mauling well with quick ball being
fed out to the backs very quickly where Sean McConnell, Aaron Myers
& James Wheldon were punching holes in the Ashby defence with big
strong runs.
Eventually this led to a try when Bri Fretwell went down the blindside
from a maul & popped the ball to Alex Bratley who outstripped the
defence to score near the posts, Mason adding the conversion to make
the score 15 – 5. Ashby came back into the game but were held
firmly with big strong defence from the Mellish boy’s.
Another barn storming run from Myers resulted in a penalty for a high
tackle, Mellish opted for the lineout where Stu Morley was having a
field day taking lot’s of clean lineout ball, a good clean catch
was obtained & the big mobile pack drove forward where Phil ‘Fossil’
Justice drove over from close range to score a well worked try, making
the score 20 – 5.
In discipline by Ashby once again resulted
in a kick which was slotted over from 40 yards by Mason to make the
score 23 – 5. Ashby did manage to score to make the final score
23 – 10.
The result was very pleasing for skipper
Dave Mason especially with 5 first choice players un-available &
against a very good side in Ashby.
Special praise needs to go to Jordan Rowbottom & Bri Fretwell, Jordan
played exceptionally well at hooker & made several big tackles,
2 being try saving tackles. Bri Fretwell stepped into the back-row &
played very well scoring a try & setting 2 up.
The half-back partnership of young Ross at scrum-half & Jonny Cocking
moving to fly-half worked very well. But Man of the match goes to big
Aaron Myers for his barn storming runs which really set the picture
for the afternoon, he made huge yards every time he got ball in hand
& caused Ashby problems all afternoon.
A special mention needs to go to Phil ‘Fossil’ Justice as
well for his contribution to Mellish rugby with very good performances
every time he wore the shirt who will step down from playing to concentrate
on coaching the team next season, along side head coach Matt Williams.
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