Aspatria 39 – 10 Didsbury Toc H

With Toc’s normal resolute defence leaking too many tries, Didsbury came away with a harsh 39-10 defeat.

Didsbury travelled without Neil Wilkinson, Tom Rooney and talismanic second rower Phil Cooper, but a strong team still took the field at the well appointed Bower Park.

Didsbury started the game brightly, despite the torturous coach journey, and pressured the home side defence in the early exchanges. Aspatria weathered the early onslaught and took the lead with a penalty. The Cumbrian side were buoyed by this breakthrough and attacked again, their experienced fly-half stepped inside an attempted tackle to touchdown by the posts for the opening try of the match. The conversion was completed and Aspatria led 10-0. Didsbury upped their intensity, and some good kicking by Sean Bishop, Gaz Oakley and Dylan Williams made good ground for Didsbury to attack from. Uncharacteristically the Didsbury lineout wasn’t as potent as previous weeks and Aspatria held firm. Aspatria rounded off the half with another try, this time from a rolling maul.

The 15-0 half time scoreline was a daunting one to Didsbury, but they knew they had spent most of the first half defending. Toc H attacked from the restart and were rewarded with a well taken Bishop penalty. This was cancelled out by an Aspatria penalty, and their lead was further extended with a third try. At 25-3 Didsbury knew they would have to mount a monumental comeback to get anything out of the match. Didsbury competed well in the scrums all day, and had their bigger opponents’ struggling a number of times, with skipper Mike Hyde taking several against the head. With Toc H awarded a penalty 5 metres from the tryline they chose the scrum, from which they drove towards the line. The certain try was only stopped by an Aspatria infringement and the referee had no option but to award the penalty try. Bishop converted to close the gap to 25-10. Didsbury had one eye on another score to potentially take away a losing bonus point, but a fine break by the home sides’ fullback saw him score by the posts. Aspatria polished off the win with their fifth try after some lacklustre Didsbury defending.

The 39-10 final score seems a bit harsh on reflection, but Aspatria clinically took their chances, and showed the level to aim for to get to the top of this league. Didsbury remain a respectable fifth in the league, and welcome Whitehaven to Ford Lane next Saturday 2:15pm kick off.