Under 14 Match Report
SUNDAY 6th November 2005
Melton Mowbray 12pts V Lutterworth 37pts
Another Fine All Round Performance
It was a welcome return for Barnaby Barker this week and within two minutes the winger did what he does best and took on the Melton forwards and scored. Connor drove over at the maul and Ingham passed it to Barker, Barny obliged to score, giving Lutterworth a tremendous start
0 – 5. The Lutterworth forwards were putting all sorts of pressure on Melton’s pack, This relentless pressure paid off Bruce ran 40 metres, passed it to Thacker, who in turn let Jamie Steventon loose to storm through and score 0 – 10. Ryan Bruce, who was having a purple patch, showed his skills again, when picking a loose ball up and sprinting through their defence passing to Radley, Bruce got it back and crossed the line to take the score to 0 – 15. Dan Thacker who again was relentless with his efforts got the better of Melton’s forwards and got caught just short of the line, no matter George Hargreaves was there to mop up and made the score 0 – 20.
Right from the kick-off Joe Leeks caught the ball and ran through the pack, he kicked a high ball forward and just failed to catch it - good skills but the wind just took it over. Joshua Williams was getting a lot of ball and he put in a very good performance today. Alex Vostanis wrapped up the scoring in the first half when Leeks won the ball from the ruck, he chased through only to be held up. Joe popped it out and Vostanis crossed the line making the score 0 – 25 at the interval.
With Melton now having the wind behind them, we all thought that they would start putting some high kicks downfield, but it was Lutterworth who kept pushing forward. Goodfellow, Dann and Walch were all prominent and their fluent passing kept the ball moving well. Another great passage of play resulted in Bruce getting the ball and releasing Leeks, Joe skipped round the last man and put it under the post’s. Bruce converted and the score was an impressive 0 – 32. Melton started to push forward more and if it wasn’t for a couple of great drives from Callum McDougall, Lutterworth might have conceded once or twice. With just ten minutes to go Melton did score a try when they were awarded a penalty just five metres out, they spread it wide and touched the ball down right in the corner 5 - 32. Lutterworth replied almost immediately. Leeks ran along the line and passed to Barker, Barny then scored his second of the game, 5 – 37. Melton finished off the scoring for the day, with a minute to go their best move of the day involved six or seven passes and a try was the final outcome. With the conversion completed the final score was 12 – 37 to Lutterworth.
Coaches Comments: Fantastic rugby at times today, but still room for more communication. The release when 2 on 1 was poor. We did scrummage well today and our handling was a lot better.
Coaches Man of the Match: Daniel Thacker. A storming display with a lot of good running.