Sharlston ‘A’ – 36 Meltham All Blacks – 6

The first ten minutes of the match saw Meltham apply concentrated pressure in the Shalston half. Some creative play from Richard Barber opened up some games however, their defence proved to be very tight. Meltham showed the quality of rugby they can produce with some good passing that spread the ball from one wing to the other, the finishing touch just was not quite there.

The first try of the match went to Sharlston who, after a penalty on the wing, crossed the whitewash but failed to convert. The rest of the first half saw both teams defend well but Sharlston managed to open up a couple of gaps in Meltham’s defence and score two further tries that were converted. The score at half time 16 : 0 to Sharlston.

Meltham got off to a better start in the second half completing more of their sets making Sharlston work harder, this eventually paid off as Richard Ellis drew in several of Sharlson’s players and off loaded the ball to Louis Cromwell who went on to score his debut try for the All Blacks. Matthew Hird converted this to add the two. A yellow card for one of Sharlston’s players gave the All Blacks chance to get back into the match with an extra player. A combination of good defence on their part and some handling errors meant Meltham did not capitalise on this advantage.

Sharlston went on to score four further tries in the second half leaving the score at full time 36:6.

Sharlston  nominated Alan Williams as forward of the match and Jason Carter as best Back. Meltham’s players player of the match was Louis Cromwell – a solid first appearance for Meltham