Melton RFC find their rhythm to dispatch St Ives

Both sides contributed to an entertaining game, eager to put on a good show after England’s magnificent World Cup win, with added vocal support after the Vice Presidents lunch.

The referee insisted on a pitch inspection after the very heavy rain which left the ground saturated, but mercifully eased before kick-off.

The visitors were soon into their stride with some probing runs from their bulkier forwards, but fine tackling from Dan Evans and Marcus Badham kept them out.

St Ives had the first opportunity with a penalty near the posts, but the ball drifted narrowly wide.

Virtually the same scenario was then played out when Harvey Green missed at the other end, but quick thinking put Melton ahead.

Archie Hutchinson took a quick tap-penalty which caught the visitors napping, and after some good passing, Franco slid over in the corner as if playing beach rugby.

Both sides made every effort to keep it tight and make ground in the difficult conditions.

A well-organised driving maul saw Jack Forfar driven over with Harvey Green adding a sweetly-struck conversion to open up a 12-0 lead.

But the hosts paid the penalty for failing to clear their lines in defence by kicking for territory and ultimately paid the price.

The ball was dropped and hacked through by St Ives whose centre won the race to score. The resulting conversion made it a narrow half-time lead of 12-7.

The second half started with similar driving mauls by both sides, but the better organised Melton pack were more than a match for their opponents’ bulk.

A first lineout deep in St Ives territory was taken well by Simon Peters, and when some of the backs joined in to drive the opposition back, Sam Dennison emerged with the ball to claim the try. Green added the extras.

Melton then made some key changes, with the ever youthful Sam Badham coming on, while Dan Wakefield made a welcome return.

Head coach Michael Holford also decided to have a stint in the front row to wear down the sizeable prop.

It paid dividends almost immediately when fine handling and a trademark weaving run from Klay Radford gave Luke Pawley a try in the corner. Green’s well-judged conversion put Melton 26-7 up.

This gave Melton the confidence to up their game, and despite slippery underfoot conditions they launched a wave of attacks from both forwards and backs.

The beneficiary was Harry Wood as he left the defence trailing with a smartly-taken try.

The St Ives forwards let their discipline slip and the second row was shown a yellow card for a deliberate infringement.

This gave the Melton pack the edge, and from a set scrum Peters made a stunning break, taking defenders with him.

Dennison read the play well and was up in support to crash over for his second try, converted by Green.

St Ives never gave up the fight as they clawed their way back upfield.

A quick tap penalty caught Melton unawares, and the bulky second row crashed over for a deserved try to add some respectability to the scoreline.

Numbers were evened out when Dennison contrived to earn a yellow card after a fine individual performance.

The final word went to the backs when Sam Badham and Wakefield combined to make significant gains with some storming runs upfield, bouncing tacklers off at will.

Ben Warwick injected some pace from full-back and fed Henry Kaczmarczyk on the wing for a clear run to the line.

Green capped a good display of kicking in the conditions with another conversion to complete the scoring.