Elks no match for Melbourne

Elks hosted Melbourne for the first home fixture of the season and were given a lesson in speed of play and speed of thought as Melbourne ran out easy winners 10-43.

The game was moved to the second team pitch due to an injured Colt from the earlier kick off still being treated on the first team pitch for a suspected spinal injury, thankfully this was not as serious as first thought and we wish him a speedy recovery.

Moving to the second team pitch seemed to affect the Elks as they were slow to get into the game, Melbourne began much the better and were on the scoresheet after only 2 minutes with a well worked try, extras missed making it 0-5.

It was all Melbourne in the early stages and from another attack the Elks were penalised and Melbourne added an easy 3 points from the boot, 0-8 after 7 mins.

Elks finally regrouped and made good inroads into Melbourne’s half through Greg Taylor, Melbourne were penalised and from the quick tap the ball was eventually moved wide to Aaron Garvey who forced his way over, extras missed making it 5-8 after 10 mins.

From the kick off Zac Lebeter was taken out in the air and the Melbourne defender was yellow carded on 12 mins. Elks used the numerical advantage to launch several attacks and were awarded a penalty on 23 mins, however the shot at goal fell short and the scores were unchanged.

With Melbourne back to full strength they had a series of attacks and retained the ball well, space was created on the left and they ran in their second try, this was well converted from wide out and made it 5-15 after 25 mins.

The Elks seemed a bit lack lustre and had a poor run in to half time as Melbourne ran in 3 further tries with some of the tackling well below the levels of the previous week, all 3 were converted making it 5-36 at half time. Elks weren’t helped by a number of injuries forcing Ben Middleton and Tom Pottinger off the pitch.

Elks made a much better start to the second half and were soon on the attack through Alex Ayres and G Taylor, one such attack resulted in a penalty against Melbourne and Joe Marsden was quickest to react and from his quick tap he darted through to score, extras missed making it 10-36 after 46 mins.

Elks had a good period of possession but could not break through a stubborn Melbourne defence, further attacks through Ayres and G Taylor made good ground but Melbourne turned over several key breakdowns and cleared when ever the Elks had a glimpse of scoring.

The second half was a much more even contest with plenty of effort from the Elks but no real scoring chances, Melbourne forced their way up the field after repelling several Elks attacks and again ran through the phases retaining the ball well, they created a big blindside on the left and crashed over for the final score on 70 mins, extras added making it 10-43. No further score were registered making this the final score.

After last weeks promise this was a disappointing result and although Melbourne were clearly a good outfit some of the tackling gifted some easy ;points.

Not too many highlights from the match but the Elks best player was Aaron Garvey and he gets the nod for Man of the Match.

Next week sees a break from the league as the Elks face Dronfield at the Stute in the 3 counties cup, 3.00pm kick off.