Meltham All Blacks
Match Reports
Sunday 25th February 2007
Meltham All Blacks Under 8’s – Home to Queensbury
Meltham 44 - Queensbury 0
Business as usual for the Meltham under 8's on a rather nippy day, when parents look proudly on as their children shiver, covered in mud due to the recent weather making very hard playing conditions.
The Meltham side looked confident after their loss last week and were back to their best with an opening converted try from Jordan Williams 6-0.
Queensbury battled hard, and put up a fight but shortly after Alex 'the tank' Zatorski dived over. Their was no stopping Williams who after a weeks rest was renewed and put on a show of five tries in all (man of the match and top tackler award). Darren Walker converted Williams's second try, before Williams went over before the break. (20-0)
Darren Walker, George Sykes-Kenworthy (player of the week) and Christian Pestell shared out the tackling and made sure that the determined Queensbury side did not get through the Meltham defence, which has been outstanding this year. Christian Pestell scored his first when he was subbed at half time and duly converted (26-0). Jack Clifford rounded off the game with his sole try of the match.
It was good to see the return of Stephen Tooley, and Molly Doyle and a welcome to Kyle Longbottom who played well in his debut. Although the score makes the game look easy, Meltham were challenged by the Queensbury side throughout the game, and it was end to end stuff. Defence was paramount today, Ryan White (most improved) and Lewis Bull getting down to the hard graft with Tom Hindle, Carl Sykes and Jordan James. They have the making of a really strong squad and they work really hard for each other.
Meltham will be on the road again on Sunday when they travel to Wibsey. who are also at the top of this league. This is bound to be another hard test for this young side who never fail to put in 100% every week.
Meltham All Blacks Under 9’s – Away at Townville
Townville 30 - Meltham 10
Meltham gave away too much possession too easily to gain any reward for the big effort put in against a solid defence. The only player capable of breaking through proved to be Michael Tooley after some good work up field by his team mates to score two trys.
Oliver Tandy had a very impressive debut with plenty of tackles and he was denied two trys by the corner flag. Oliver Szlachcic and Cory McDonagh were given extra work in training on their tackling technique and this showed straight from the start with both players showing a new eagerness in defence to up their work rate with Cory and Oliver sharing the Man of the Match award an Jack Evans top tackler.
Next week Meltham have a tough game at home against Kings Cross but if they cut out the unforced errors they should be favourites
Trys: - Michael Tooley (2)
Goals: - Daniel King
Meltham All Blacks Under 10’s – Home to Halifax
Meltham 18 – Halifax 12
These two evenly matched teams contributed to a great game of rugby on a very heavy pitch. The game proved to be a titanic battle of the defences with both teams keeping out the opposition on numerous occasions on their own try lines, Meltham being held up on five occasions in all.
The All Blacks took the lead, when Elliot Currid crossed the line by the corner flag after just 2 minutes following early pressure from the Meltham forwards. Halifax responded with attacking pressure of their own twice forcing Meltham to defend on their line before finally crossing the line themselves to score.
At half time the visitors held a slender lead 8 points 6.
Straight after the break Halifax increased their lead when they crossed the line to score their third try of the game. In recent weeks this may have signalled a loss of heart by the Meltham team, but not this week, the lads stuck to the task in hand and took the game to Halifax with renewed vigour, and justly deserved to score three unanswered trys
Player of the week Jordan McDonnell scored his first try for the under 10’s when he barged his way over the line,
Man of the Match Frazer Morris was unlucky not to have added to the Meltham try count when after a strong run and under pressure from the Halifax defence fumbled the ball as he crossed the line.
This was a first class performance by the whole team and can only boost their confidence for a couple of tough fixtures which await them in the next few weeks.
Trys: - Elliot Currid (2), Luke Pogson, Jordan McDonnell
Goals: - Like Pogson.
Meltham All Blacks Under 11’s – Away at Newsome
Newsome 22 – Meltham 24
In a very close derby game against a much improved Newsome side Meltham under 11’s edged the win by 24 points to 22. Tries were scored by Elliot Morris who scored two, Oliver Kirk and David Dyson . Dyson also kicked two goals with Jack Thackeray also kicking two.
Meltham All Blacks Under 12’s – Away at Ovenden
Ovenden 0 - Meltham 18
A top defensive effort saw the under 12’s keep a clean sheet for a third time in their last 4 outings.
To keep a side from scoring in the premier league is a great achievement but to do it in three of their last four games just goes to show what a formidable outfit this Meltham team is becoming.
Playing the first half up the steep Ovenden slope the Meltham defence was rock solid, with the ever dependable Sam Rochford leading from the front. In attack the powerful running of Patrick Diavewa was creating havoc every time he received the ball, on two occasions he received the ball from 40 metres out and barged his way through the defence before racing away to the line. At half time the score was 8 to 0.
In the second period Meltham scored a great try when the ball was passed along the line to Jack Thompson who beat several defenders on a 30 metre run to the posts. The last try was a fine individual effort from George King who raced in from the 40 metre line. Joint top tacklers were Sam Rochford and George King.
Man of the match was Patrick Diavewa