Midlands 2 East North

1st October 2011
Midlands 2 East North
Nottingham Casuals 19 Melton Mowbray 20

Casuals made a bright start to the game, and could easily have held an early lead, but it took 20 minutes for the first score to come.

Richard Gill, returning after a month long lay off, took the ball forward, and the ball was quickly shifted from the breakdown along the backs for Steve Naylor on the right wing to run in at the corner.
Naylor was involved in the second score when he and Charlie Bradwell exchanged passes,for Bradwell to run across field to score in the middle. Will Drewe added the conversion.

Unfortunately Melton came back with an unconverted try to end the first half 12 – 5, when Casuals conceded a scrum straight from the kick off, and Melton scored from a simple crossfield move.

The second half started with Melton exerting pressure from the off.
They broke through, and with Casuals desperately defending Melton were awarded a penalty. Opting for a scrum, they pushed Casuals back over the line.
The try was converted to bring the scores level.

Then came a farce in defence.
Melton put up a very speculative kick, which Casuals defenders managed to completely miss as it bounced towards the try line, and Melton somehow got a hand to the touchdown through a number of players falling to the ground in goal, and the referee had no hesitation in awarding the try.

Casuals seemed to have sneaked the win when Casuals moved the ball from the base of a midfield scrum to right wing Naylor. Faced by defenders he deftly grubbered a kick through and ran on to pick up the bouncing ball and streak away to the posts.
Drewe converted to give Casuals a 2 point lead.

The game seemed to go on for a hell of a while after that, and in the extensive time added on for stoppages, Melton had one last attack from which they won the game.

As a Melton player was tackled, he spilled the ball. Unfortunately for Casuals, the referee awarded a penalty for an offence at the supposed breakdown, and Melton kicked the goal to gain a somewhat fortuitous result.

What do you say to a player who has picked up a rolling ball,which if not penalized, would surely have been cleared away and that would have been the end of the game. Instead his quick thinking has led to a penalty!!!!!!!!!!