Cosby made several enforced changes for the visit of a Melton 2s side who have had some strong looking results early in the season and boast several ex-1s players in their ranks.
Making their first appearances of the season were Mason, Rizzle & Paddy Gaz, Brighty came in at 12 and partnered Kyle in the centre in a new look back line. Cosby also welcomed Dan Waudby (Army Dan) to the club who is returning to the game following a long spell on the side-line through injury.
Whitey, having shed half of the mass gained whilst on honeymoon, was restored to his favoured open-side role from the off for the first time since his return.

Often, we have discussed making a fast start and putting the opposition under pressure, often we have failed in this quest and this has set the tone for the first 10minutes of games. Today was to be different, today was a blinding start. Brighty hung the kick-off in the air just long enough for the pack to put pressure on the catcher. A big hit from Paddy Gaz saw the ball knocked on and Cosby gained a scrum and possession. Cosby made steady progress down the field against an extremely well organised defence.
It was clear Melton had some very experienced leaders in their side who set the tone with ferocious tackling. One such tackle led to a knock on and a scrum to Melton. During an untidy scrum, the ball came straight out of the tunnel, unfortunately sir didn’t see it and the Melton scrum half kicked the ball back in towards his back row. Clearly upset by the breaking of the Scrum-Half code, Coates took instant retribution by pushing their Scrum-Half so hard that he left his feet and landed so far away from the scrum that he could not affect possession. Coates then put in a huge hit on the 8, support arrived quickly in the form of Paddy Gaz and Cosby won a penalty.

Dan Hewins, who was about to have one of those memorable games, found the corner with a lovely kick giving Cosby an opportunity from the lineout. The lineout in recent weeks has been poor, so this was the heavy focus of the pre-game warm up. The extra practice worked as the lineout was back to being a dangerous weapon. A slimmer than ever Alan Maddison found his throwing arm in the first half and Army Dan the same when he came on second half. The lineout was so dominant that Melton began a tap and go tactic with penalties in the second half, rather than gaining territory and a lineout, great effort here gents.
This lineout however, came to nothing, again thanks to aggressive defending, Melton cleared.

Cosby kept on the pressure and stayed within Melton territory and finally the possession told. Some good work by the pack to recycle a couple of times gave Cosby an overlap out wide. The ball was shipped unselfishly through the hands of Dan, Brighty, Jim and Kyle, who did well to offload as he was tackled, into the arms of the onrushing Rizzle. No player is more dangerous with open space in front of him, Rizzle kicked on the afterburners and scored in the corner. In true homage to the missing Jack Hodges, Timmy missed the kick. Cosby were 5-0 up and playing well.

Melton grew into the game and were very controlled in possession. Each time they thought they might get through though, another one of Cosby’s tackling legends stood up and put them down. Paddy Gaz, Pommy, Whitey, Brighty, Kyle, Jim, Maddo, all putting in tackles of note in an even first period. Smash was also having a stand out game. His development since he first came to the club has been astonishing. He is now one of our most relied upon ball carriers and is becoming more crucial in defence. His "never take a step back" attitude has now been paired with vastly improved discipline, making him a dangerous player for opposition teams to have to deal with.

One tackling event stood out in the first half, Melton threw the ball wide and Mason found himself up against a significantly bigger winger. Despite setting himself correctly and being in a nice tackling position, he was hit with such force that he took off, in a scene reminiscent of the launching of Apollo 13, Mason took to orbit, landing some 30minutes later in Littlethorpe.

Cosby had another opportunity after more flowing passing from the backs (yes including Kyle who has learnt to pass proficiently somehow in the last 7 days).
Kyle chipped through right into the corner and turned the entire Melton defence. Isolated, the Melton defender dropped on the ball, in their haste to turn the ball over, Cosby gave away an unnecessary penalty. I didn’t see who the guilty party was, so I can’t name and shame, sorry. If anyone knows who it was, I’ll give you 50p to grass on them in the comments on the Facebook post.

After 35 minutes, and on the back of several extended stints of Melton possession, Cosby began to tire. In recent weeks we have shipped several scores before half time due to implosion of mentality caused by tiredness. Fortunately, Dan Hewins was on hand to kick the little possession we did have clear and relieve the pressure. There was a feeling of calmness around the squad today, confidence in themselves and each other, something we have yet to see this season.

As it looked like Cosby might go into the half with the narrowest of advantages, Melton found something special. It was going to take something out of the ordinary to break the Cosby defence down and this was certainly it. From within their own half Melton started to recycle the ball using a great mix of the forwards’ power runs and the handling of the backs. They went through fully 20 phases, advancing the 60 yards required to reach the Cosby try line. No Cosby player did anything wrong or missed any tackle, simply this was a very good try which showed precision, patience and skill in execution. The kick was missed, and the half time score was 5-5. A fair reflection of what was a great half of rugby to watch.

Army Dan came into the action for the second half, chomping at the bit to get involved. As he is new to the club, we wont go into too much detail about his first 4 carries (3 knock ons and 1 penalty for holding on) and instead focus on his direct strong running and fearless tackling, a great return to rugby and we look forward to see him pulling on the famous black and red in future games.

The second half continued in the same manner as the first. If anything, both defences improved further. Much of the game was played in the middle third of the field, Cosby probably had the edge on balance, but only just.

The one good chance of the half fell to Cosby. From another nicely organised scrum, Coates popped the ball to Dan who came blind and hit the line hard. He tied up the attention of the opposition player and fed Jim, Jim did the same which put Rizzle in space 20 yards out. Striding towards the corner, it looked for the world like he would pick up his second of the game. In keeping with their incredible defence to that point, Melton got out of jail. The 13 came from absolutely nowhere at incredible pace and put Rizzle out inside the 5m line. Looking back now, that was a tackle that got a result for his team. Fair play.

Cosby fought to create one final opportunity; one score would surely win it for either side based on how both were defending. With 5 minutes left, the opportunity was earned. After a big tackle by Dan and a couple of phases, Cosby won a penalty just inside the Melton 10m line. The decision was made to go for posts. Cosby kicking legend Scott Hayward was amongst the spectators and was visibly excited by the prospect of taking it, unfortunately he didn’t bring his kicking wellingtons with him, so, in the absence of regular kickers Lank and Hodges, “Toe-poke” Timms stepped up to take it on. The park fell silent, one swing of the leg for all of the glory, would he be a hero?
Timms stepped up with a certain degree of caution given the conditions under foot and swung that pendulum through the ball. Gasps were heard as the ball flew of the tee. Alas, it was not to be, the ball struck the right hand upright (after bouncing 3 times) and Melton cleared to safety.

Cosby got the ball back and made their way upfield with only a minute to play. First, they won a scrum and then a lineout. Big carries from Maddo and Smash put them within striking distance. A few pick and goes and one phase through the back left Cosby only 10 yards out. Unfortunately, an unlucky knock(I won't say who, but he did dish a fne out to himself) on whilst attempting a pickup gave away a scrum and that brought proceedings to an end. The second half was scoreless. Final score Cosby 5-5 Melton 2s.

On balance, a fair result against a really strong defence. Melton came to Cosby expecting to steamroll the home side, so a draw and 3 league points might have been a disappointment for them. Cosby, once again saving their best performances for games where they are big underdogs were, in the end, disappointed not to collect the win.

I have been somewhat critical of Sirs and opposition players in recent weeks (fairly so in my opinion). Today however, both deserve a lot of credit. Sir performed well and didn’t have an effect on the result of the game, this was helped by significantly improved Cosby discipline both in terms of the lack of lip given and reduced penalty count.
The opposition were decent, honest and fair guys, we look forward to travelling an hour to the away game later in the season!!!!!

So so many good performances on the day. Dan ran hard and hit the line well, sacrificing his body on more than one occasion to put a teammate in space. Maddo carried well all day, never coughed up possession and put his body on the line. The usual tackling machines were out in full effect, Pommy, Whitey, Buzz, Kyle. Smash was great both going forward and in defence(why anyone would ever choose to run into him, I have no idea!) Jim was incredible under the high ball in poor conditions. Brighty had easily his best defensive game in a Cosby shirt as well as adding loads going forward. The scrum steadily wore down the Melton pack from an evenly contested first scrum, to Cosby being dominant second half. Man of the Match however went to Paddy Gaz. Insane tackling all day long, smart organisation of the defensive line and always making the correct decisions. He set the tone for the best defensive performance I have ever seen from a Cosby team and was just always in the correct place to affect the game.

We go again next week away at Market Harborough, pending a pitch inspection.

I will be taking a break from writing match reports for a few weeks, as I won’t be at games, while I recover from my op. Your wordsmiths going forward will be Timms and Hodges until further notice. Good luck with that……………

Chappo x