De La Salle 10 – 0 Didsbury Toc H

Didsbury knew a win was important to take the impetus away from the unbeaten Salford outfit, but they came out on the wrong end of a 10-0 score line in a tight encounter.

The game was played in bright conditions and despite the pitch having an impressive slope and being a bit bumpy it was solid underfoot. Toc H elected to play up the hill in the first half and looked to try to regain some of the flowing rugby that served them so well before the weather and Christmas forced so many games to be cancelled. De La Salle were straight into their stride forcing Didsbury to defend the fringes around the rucks and mauls as the home side sent their hard runners at the Toc H defense. Didsbury defended well and repelled several sustained attacks, but it took about twenty minutes for Toc to get a foothold in the game. The referee made some interesting calls, for both sides, but it was his interpretation of the scrum that wouldn’t have pleased the visitors. The home pack, to their credit, nullified the Didsbury push by wheeling the scrum and restricted Toc H from having any quality possession. With both defences holding their ground it was going to take a mistake to make the break through and unfortunately luck went the way of De La Salle. A huge return kick by the homeside’s fullback was misjudged in defence and the fullback managed to gather his own kick to race under the posts for a try. The conversion was added and that was how the score stayed, 7-0, until halftime.

Didsbury had the use of the slope in the second half and started to make some good breaks, through flanker Aidan Murphy and Pete Davies. But the homeside demonstrated why they are unbeaten the league this season, by repelling any attack and turning Didsbury possession over. Didsbury had a chance to close the gap, but Wilder sent his kick just the wrong side of the uprights. This miss was backed up by De La Salle converting a penalty of their own to extend the lead to 10-0. Didsbury only really started to get into their stride with 60minutes on the clock, making a number of attempts on the tryline. When they did cross the line, after an outrageously good pass by Dylan Williams to Dave Hoare, the referee brought them back for a forward pass. Out of luck and out of time the final whistle came too soon for Didsbury.
De La Salle now have the upper hand in the league, going four points clear at the top. Next Saturday Disdbury will look to get things back on track welcoming Ashton under Lyne to Ford Lane, 2:15pm kick off.