Didsbury Toc H 30 – 16 St Benedicts

Didsbury Toc H 30 – 16 St Benedicts
Didsbury Toc H continued their fine home record from last season with a 30-16 victory over west Cumbrian side St Benedicts at Ford Lane.

Toc H were missing a number of players, 5 absent due to the wedding of Andy Lynn and two more regulars, Phil Copper and Dave Hoare also away.

The new look Didsbury side took to the field looking to build on last week’s opening day league victory, and they started the game well. St Benedicts kicked off straight into touch and Didsbury won the resulting scrum, with a completely new front row to the previous week of Ames, Foster and Walker who settled into their job early. The backline of Didsbury, which will be the envy of most sides in the league, started to find holes in the St Benedicts defence. James Southall made a telling break on ten minutes and found Mike Moran in support on the inside, who outpaced the covering defenders to finish well. Sean Bishop added the conversion and soon increased the lead further to 10-0 with a penalty. Didsbury continued in the same vein and forced St Benedicts to defend. Joseph Perkins made some potent attacks from his wing position and set up the ball close to St Benedicts line, from where centre James Southall was able to score in the corner. Bishop narrowly missed the resulting conversion but Didsbury had a healthy 15-0 lead. The away side, not naïve at playing at this level, started to get into the game and two Didsbury errors gifted them two tries. Both conversions were missed but the Cumbrians were now within a score of taking the lead. Benedicts bombarded the Didsbury line for a sustained period, but tight defence avoided any further scores. Bishop slotted a second penalty before the break to take the score to 18-10 at half time.

The home side picked up their tempo after the interval and started to try and stretch the visitors defence. Wingers Tom Rooney and Perkins, later named joint men of the match, were making a lot of yardage down the flanks. One break by Rooney, from inside his own half, saw him remarkably slip the ball out of the tackle to Bishop to race in to score. Rooney backed this up with a try of his own, speeding past his opposite number to score under the posts. Bishop added the conversion and Didsbury had the bonus point in the bag for scoring four tries. St Benedicts converted two penalties to make the score 30-16, and were now looking to get within seven points to secure a losing bonus point. But Didsbury held out and were glad to hear the final whistle.
The five league points victory pleased the Didsbury coaching staff, and somewhat surprisingly takes Didsbury to the top of the league. Only two games played and Didsbury are all too aware of the strength of a number of the sides in this league. Next Saturday Didsbury visit Eccles, who are also unbeaten so far this season.