Local neighbours Mellish always prove good hosts for what was to be a fairly damp morning despite the hazy sunshine which tried in vain to break the armour of cloud above Arnold.

Corsairs kicked off and stamped their intentions on the game immediately by quickly pinning the hosts down near their 22. The forwards and backs linked well to secure the first couple of breakdowns, sending Giles (without his Crocs) over for the first score of the match within the first three minutes between the posts, nicely setting up Ollie to slot the conversion effortlessly between the uprights. 0-7.

Mellish restarted and Corsairs cleanly recovered to eventually send Charlie C charging up the left wing to within 5 metres of the opposition try line before being tackled into touch. Mellish now had to clear their lines but Corsairs’ pressure proved too much as one of the opposition lads was tackled into touch-in-goal forcing the scrum on the 5 metres. Corsairs capitalised with a lovely try worked by the forwards, sending George over for the second try close to the left flag. An extremely challenging conversion for even a professional player but Ollie hoofed a conversion that Marcus Smith would have been proud of, hitting the crossbar. Just a couple of inches more distance would have been an international match winning kick.

From the restart, Mellish found themselves on the receiving end of another Corsairs attack at pace until penalised for a high tackle on Tom ‘The Beast’ G. Giles took the tap and brough Corsairs back up to the opposition 22 before knocking it on and giving Mellish the scrum. However, the Green and White Tsunami weren’t done. Giles once again played a part in stealing possession to release Myles B who threw a lovely final offload to Jack to go over for Corsairs third try of the match to the right of the posts. Ollie effortlessly slotted over the conversion to put the Lady Bay Legends nineteen points in front.

The Mellish restart kick was deep into space, proving difficult for Corsairs to gather. The ensuing pressure forced a knock-on and scrum to Mellish inside the Corsairs 22. Some backchat to the ref forced Corsairs back ten to defend on their own line. At this point Mellish launched their own secret weapon, Josh, whose low angle of attack and huge hair took the lads completely off guard and gave the hosts their first five points of the match just before the interval.

The second half was launched by a Mellish boot from which our lads quickly rebuilt and used the back line well through Emilio (who had now been switched to inside centre), Tom G, Adam and Stan, giving the whole team a territorial gain back up to the halfway line. Unfortunately, at this point, some old bad habits raised their heads and Corsairs were punished for not committing to tackles when the Mellish danger man, Josh, once again cut through the defence like a knife through butter to go over virtually uncontested for Mellish’s second and last try of the match.
Feeling the danger of letting the lead slip away, from the Corsairs restart, the lads piled the pressure on immediately. A ruck was jackalled within moments and the ball flew from the safe hands of Harry T to Emilio, who carried out one of his trademark looping runs over to the far side of pitch to draw the ball away from the forwards, getting as far as the opposition 5 metres where he selflessly passed the ball to the last man. Sadly, on this occasion the circle couldn’t be completed but Corsairs found themselves again in a strong field position from where Giles was able to get over the line for his second try of the match and restore a commanding lead.

Again, Ollie made no mistake in adding the two points to push the score to 10-26.

From the final Mellish restart, Adam gathered a high ball convincingly to launch Giles through the centre, restarting the final Corsairs attack right up to the Mellish five metres. After some toing and froing in the Mellish half, Corsairs once again showed what they are capable of when the ball is moved along the full expanse of the back line, with the ball breaking down on the right side of the opposition 22, Emilio found himself looping from the ruck to the left-hand side of the field to finally receive and go over for the last score of the match against his old team.
The lads are improving with each game and proving that games can only be won when the forwards do their job of securing possession and the backs are launched dynamically to surprise the opposition and exploit space. It was a true 15 player game today and defence was generally stoic (despite the second soft try) with players like Stan and Ollie tackling well above their weights and proving what committed defence is capable of. Some great jackalling from Tayo, Myles B and Emilio with Harry R, Charlie C, Tom G and George appearing to pop up and cause problems for the opposition everywhere. MOTM went to Emilio for moving from full back into the inside centre role for the second half and stepping up to the challenge with one near try and the finishing score. Mellish awarded their opposition MOTM to ‘The Beast’, indicative of the threat Tom G presented to them each time he took possession. Credit should also be extended to our hooker, Kyle, who turned up to cheer on his teammates today despite being ruled out through injury, demonstrating what a tight unit Corsairs are.

Movement of the ball, spotting and taking advantage of space was the key to all Corsairs’ successes last season. They have a reputation amongst other teams to be speedsters and surprise bigger packs with their strength and dominance in the forward play. The success of the Corsairs forwards is unquestionable, winning both their own scrums and lineouts and many against the head, but better use of the backs’ speed produces real results and was the deciding factor in this game. Keep moving the ball and avoid running into trouble whilst committing to tackling. Use every player on the park and the results will keep coming. Our new starters this season are proving really promising. Adam is taking to rugby like a duck to water, Tom G has already earned himself a nickname and Ollie is certainly adding to the points from the boot. Jack didn’t do too bad also, putting five points on the scoreboard today.

It's time for Corsairs to assert where they belong. The tide is beginning to turn again. Believe! BELIEVE!

Nottingham Corsairs RFC

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