Didsbury v Old Bedians (From Old Bedians Website)

Didsbury Toc H 43
Old Bedians 17

If ever there was a case of the less said the better it would certainly be appropriate for the first half of the local derby against Didsbury Toch. Certainly the less said about the first 20 minutes, in which Toch stormed to a 20 point lead the better. Bedians were guilty of simply not taking on the opposition.

There’s an old sporting cliché spouted by two bit rugby pundits all over the world that “defence is all about attitude”. Well this summarises our attitude; there was dropped tackles, missed tackles, poor defence positioning and it was all mixed in with some basic incorrect options and execution in attack. From 1 to 15 it was well below first team standard.

Toch have not performed well this year and, although they admit it was the best they’d played, Bedians made them look like world beaters. It was with some luck we didn’t find ourselves further than 30 points behind at the break. And that sucks to write.

The second stanza was a better performance against a team that started to show signs of weakness. The outside backs started breaking lines frequently but failed to put the finishing touches on their work. At the same time poor kick chases led to two more Toch tries. There were some positives namely winger Rob Oliver who stood out on a beaten side. Rob set up and scored a try for himself darting through four cover defender. He also threw the last pass on two occasions to put outside centre Vince Betty over for two well finished tries.

Late in the game Rob single handedly chased a break away winger down by himself, tackled him, got back to his feet, grabbed the ball despite serious attention from Toch support, and cleared the ball to safety. It was a standout brave effort.

And the chorus goes “if only”