Marlborough Rugby: Nomads trounce Melksham 2nds in one-sided encounter

Melksham 2nds 0 – 43 Nomads

Melksham started aggressively, quickly gaining ground to the Nomads 22 meter line, but Nomad’s solid defense was rewarded with a penalty allowing Nathan Morgen (10) to clear to touch against the wind.  The successful lineout led to some sustained pressure from the Nomads. The gaps began to appear, resulting in Melksham 2nds impeding again.  Only this time Louis Haiseman (9) reacted quickly, the resulting good hands from the supporting players saw Jack King (14) go over in the corner, Louis missed the conversion,  0-5 first blood to the Nomads.

A rare Nomads penalty allowed Melksham to kick to the Nomads 22, the resulting line out was over thrown, quick hands from Louis to Nathan saw the Nomads attack with Ratu Vuira (11) showing his great pace to run the ball all the way back to Melksham’s 22.  Unfortunately, lack of support from the Nomads ball carriers, gained Melksham a penalty -  a relieved Melksham were again able to clear their lines.

Great defence by Patrick Campbell (8) and Jack King allowed Nathan to kick long. Nomad’s chase was good, pinning Melksham back.  Turn over ball combined with a good phase of sustained possession saw Adam Whatley (3) eventually go over for the Nomads second try.  Louis was again unlucky with the conversion, 0-10 to the Nomads.

Tommy Elbrow (4) was clearly enjoying his first Senior league game at just 17, which he topped off with a great offload to Ratu Vuira.  Jack King, Ratu and Callum Hunt (15) ran wild, Joe Pittams (12) and Tom Longshaw (13) never missed a tackle.  The back row Sam Goldbourne, Patch Campbell and Tom frustrated Melksham’s attempts to move forward.  The front five scrummaged well and Rhodri Campbell (2) ran some great lines.  The score frustratingly finished 0-10 at half-time.

A great kick off for the start of the second half and pressure led to a Nomads scrum.  The back’s missed a pass, a move which resulted in yards, a great carry from Rhodri, just short of the line.  Callum received the pass from the resulting ruck and went over for Nomads, a third try by the posts.  Louis converted, increasing the score to 0-17 to the Nomads.

The game had clearly been gripped by Nomads, with Melksham 2nds not being able to get out of their own half. Adam added another to his tally, 0-22, the conversion missed, just right of the posts.  The Nomad’s possession saw Nathan pick Ratu out, running a line in mid-field and finishing  under the posts.  Louis added the conversion, the Nomads were now 0-29 in front.

Harry Williams, Zach Reid and RJ Horwood came on as replacements, the Nomads remained completely in control of the game.  Nathan started and finished a move in the bottom left hand corner of the pitch, he then added the conversion to the score which was now 0-36 to the Nomads.  There was another ruck which saw an inside ball passed to Tommy from Nathan.  Tommy linked with Adam who then passed it out towards Sam picking up the bouncing ball to finish the Nomads seventh try which was then converted by Nathan; final score 0-43 to the Nomads.  It was a really good performance by all and an awesome start to the league this season.