Didsbury Toc H 3s March On! 78-10

It was a rare sunny day at Simon Fields as Didsbury Toc H Third Team looked to make it a hat-trick of wins in the opening 3 games of the season, against Rochdale.

The side saw some changes to last week as players moved up the teams but the core from last week’s magnificent win against Manchester remained.
Unfortunately Rochdale could only muster 12 players on the day. This is no slight to them as it is not every year you get a world cup in your own backyard so we expect this to be a regular occurrence until the end of October. We were just happy that they came for a game rather than concede. Toc H therefore loaned Rochdale a player and the game went ahead.
Once again discipline and hard work were needed to succeed as Rochdale are one of the better sides in the league and would give Toc H a hard game. They had a very fit team and dropped 2 flankers so that they could look to play everything through the backs. This with the reduction in men on the field made for a very fast paced game.
The game started quickly and so did the scoring. Toc won the toss and looked to receive. From the kick off some great build up play lead to inside centre Josh scoring under the posts. There was still some jitters as a lot of the players were new to each other but with calming heads throughout the team Toc soon got things together. With Richard Massinghams kicking on form as usual it was converted.
Lightning quick Rob Etoff playing on the wing converted his first of 5 tries after a nice move coming from a good platform from some strong forward play. Rob would continue to be a major threat throughout the game, fully deserving his 5 tries.
The scrum yet again held well. The front row was unchanged from last week with Shan, Ewan Adair and Arthur Crabtree dominating the opposition, so much so that after 20 minutes Rochdale went for uncontested scrums. Craig Lawless, returning from injury, played at his favoured 2nd row, put in some great work during rucks and was able to steal a few line outs from Rochdale.
Once again Toc started with the 9/10 pairing of Aiden Jones and Richard Massingham which had been so effective last week. This match was no exception and the vision and organisation of both allowed Toc to dominate. A smooth move worked well from Jon Stead and Tom Pinney who made up the flanks allowed new player Bevu at 8 to smash through the opposition and score under the posts just before half time.
The 2nd half came and Toc H had still not conceded a point all season. Returning player Andy Taylor at flank, came on and immediately made an impact, passing neatly for F1 fast ex colt Siddique to convert his first of 2 tries. But like all things Tocs run of not conceding a point had to come to an end when a missed pass bounced neatly for Rochdale to scoop up and place over the try line.
Disappointed but not disheartened Toc took this as a chance to show their metal. There was more in the engine and the uncontested scrums meant the forwards had more energy. An impressive display of commitment at rucks by retuning player Ben Hemmersley and captain Sam Churchill allowed the ball to be played to Rob Weedon who with height and strength smashed through Rochdale’s defence to score. After the ball was kicked off again, Jim Maclaren, playing outside centre, who seemed to be able to drift past all oncoming tackles all day, released the ball just at the right time to allow Siddique his second.
Great defence from Vice captain Frasier Buchan playing at FB meant that Rochdale were only able to score one more try and the game ended with a 78-10 victory to the 3s. Once again the 3s had shown commitment and despite taking a large lead early on continued to press Rochdale. A mention must go to Frenchman Cancel who has played in all of the 3s games so far this season and Bevu who played brilliantly for his first game at Toc. The discipline from the last game was much improved and very few penalties were conceded.

Toc H 3s face Bury away this week and will look to continue this great start!