NLD Shield Cup - 20th January 2007
East Retford
East Retford RFC 4 v 24 Mellish RFC

Mellish Line up: Fretwell, Scott, Harris, Mason (c), Greathead, Morley, Gray, Justice, Linney, McConnell, Bratley, Crossley, Myers, Wheldon, Walden, Butcher, Hallam
Tries: Fretwell, Mason, Justice, Hallam
Conversions: Mason x 2
Pens:


Mellish travelled to East Retford in the NLD Shield Cup with a strong 1 st XV hoping to bring an end to their 3 game losing streak. The toss was won & Mellish elected to face the wind in the first half.

The kick-off was launched high by Retford which caused Mellish problems with the ball being missed due to sunlight. However, the resulting scrum was won against the head & Sean McConnell launched the ball up field for James Wheldon & Aaron Myers to chase but the East Retford defence held out.

This started a huge forward effort up front with the Mellish pack repeatedly driving the ball towards the Retford line only for the ball to be held up.

Mellish somehow lost the ball from the resulting scrum, the lineout was won & once again the ball was driven up field where Mellish were awarded a penalty & a scrum was requested.

The front five produced a solid scrum & the Retford pack was driven over for Phil ‘Fossil' Justice scoring a try.

Retford did get back into the game with a long range penalty. This spurred Mellish on & fine running from Wheldon & James was causing Retford all sorts of problems. The next passage of play was some of the best attacking & interlinking play Mellish has produced all season.

A darting run from Linney backed up by Wheldon gained 50 metres up field with Justice & skipper Mason in support the ball was passed between the 4 players several times until Mason was able to drive over from 5 yards out and score his 2nd try of the season, he narrowly missed the difficult conversion giving Mellish a 10 – 3 half-time advantage.



The second-half started brightly for Retford who scored 2 penalties to get the score back to 10 – 9.

Mellish upped the pace to gain control of the game with the forwards & backs all making in-roads into the home side's territory. Good runs from Crossley & Myers resulted in a ruck which big Andy Fretwell picked up & drove over the line, Mason adding the conversion.

Mike Hallam was brought into the fold with 15 mins left who scored on his debut after a good run from Crossley, Hallam was on hand to score under the posts, Mason adding the conversion making the final score 24 – 9.

The performance was a superb effort which halted Mellish's 3 game losing streak & a result which see's Mellish into the quarter-finals with skipper Mason hoping to go far in the competition.

The standout players this week were Aaron Myers & James Wheldon who came back into the side after a couple of weeks off & were superb in attack & strong in the tackle.

The pack performed much better in the ruck & maul situations.

But Man of the Match this week has to go to Paul Linney who stepped into scrum-half with regular scrum Jonny Cocking injured. He had a solid game with all his team mates giving him special praise for his efforts in a new position.

Mellish Man of the Match: Paul Linney.

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