U11's Strong to give Melbourne early worries!!

After months of training Ilkeston under 11’s commenced their season with a home match against the current Derbyshire champions Melbourne. Predictably Melbourne arrived with their usual abundance of players which insured that every Ilkeston player would have an opportunity of game time.
The game commenced with a beautifully lofted kick from fly half Issac Smith which allowed the Ilkeston forwards an immediate introduction to their counterparts. The first quarter of the match was kept with no scores through courageous defence tackling from the Melbourne players as the Elks dominated every passage of play. The new five man scrum of Connor Connelly, Felix Rasbusin, Aidan Norris, Robbie Boddington and Cameron Greenfield intimidated the opposition pushing the scrum and winning against the head which allowed scrum half Ben Middleton an abundance of ball to service the split attackers. This domination of set plays and strength in rucks was rewarded in the next quarter where a great positional kick by centre Joseph Doughty over the head of the Melbourne full back resulted in a scrum to Ilkeston. From the base of the scrum Middleton was able to drive down the blind side to score in the corner.
Darting runs from the wingers Zack Lebeter and Conor Corrigan and full back Christopher Goodall constantly kept the pressure on as the ball was always flowing through the backs hands. Tom Caines was very unluckily held up just before the line from a break from outside centre. The Elks were awarded a penalty just seven metres from the Melbourne line and a quick ball from Smith to Greenfield saw the battering ram burst over and score. In the final play of the quarter Melbourne were rewarded with a try when rushed ball was dropped for the centre to drop on and score.
The Ilkeston coaches now rung the changes ensuring fresh legs were introduced, this included club debuts for a number of players including Sam Rose and Alfie Cox. It also saw entering the field Billy Derbyshire, Jordan Pritchett, Liam Arnott Clark and Richard Hunt. This quarter saw Melbourne take the upper hand as they made wholesome changes also, through these changes Melbourne where able to run in three unanswered scores even though there were some very brave tackles made. The Ilkeston players continued to apply pressure but lacked the purpose and focus of the earlier segments. Unfortunately the away team scored a late deserved try to win the game 25 points to 10.
Overall a great curtain raiser to the season with the young Elks showing considerable maturity. The forwards dominated and worked as a complete unit, the backs always made ground and defended admirably and the feared introduction of kicking this season was cancelled out by the intelligent positional kicking of Smith, Doughty and Middleton. A pleasure to watch and shows the potential this season of this squad......

Man of the Match : Ben Middleton

Jon Doughty

Next Match Location : 11th October @ West Bridgford
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