Saturday 11th September Colerne 19 Melksham 2s 12
THE first pre-season friendly for the Melksham RFC development squad took place on Saturday 11th September at Colerne.
A mixture of youth, prospective first team players, and players in the autumn of their careers took to the field on what was a beautiful September day. Coach Phil Stone came back from what felt like his 15th retirement attempt to line up alongside Matthew Trueman as a crash ball partnership in the centre.
The game started fruitfully with some fast-paced attacking movement from both sides and some strong runs especially from the Melksham forwards. A series of indisciplines from Melksham however gave the home side the first score with a try after some intense pressure. The ratio of penalties conceded was verging on 10:1 with Melksham not able to gain any real phase of play without the referee’s whistle being blown.
This resulted in a change of game plan from Melksham, with their captain Jack Tunney opting to boot the ball into the corners to put the pressure back on the Colerne side. This resulted in the first of two tries from Callum Gillard over in the right-hand corner after some brilliant phase play.
Colerne were not to stay on the balls of their feet for long however, for within minutes they had their second try after some gritty forward battering. It was tit for tat as minutes later Callum Gillard had gone over for Melksham with his second try of the game, after some backs play that could have been straight out of the Harlequins handbook.
The passion of the game did rather spill out into an aggressive nature at the end of the second half. Melksham players frustrated by the inconsistencies of certain refereeing decisions caused the game to resemble that of Connor McGregor at the VMA’s.
But spoil the game it did not, the second half was as ferocious as the first, albeit with a certain amount more injuries. Colerne did score the decisive try in the last 10 minutes to bring the game beyond Melksham’s reach, despite a last gasp effort to gain a draw from the boys in Blue.
A terrific afternoon of rugby, enjoyed by all. Like rugby should be, aggression left on the pitch, beers shared by all in the clubhouse.
Man of the Match: Nathan Irving. Debut: Fraser Price. Scorers: Tries: Callum Gillard x 2. Conversions: Jack Tunney x 1
Report: Jack Tunney
