Winning Ugly

Following last weekend’s win against Garstang, Didsbury travelled to North Manchester, knowing that they would have to be at the top of their game to come away with a result. The home side, despite having lost three out of three so far this season, had lost them all by less than a score and had run both Burnley and Tarleton, the league’s frontrunners, very close. A tough game was anticipated and so it proved.

Didsbury were missing Owen McIntosh and James Eames in the second row, but welcomed back Harry Rigby and James Regan into a strong starting XV. The game started and North Manchester were quickly into their stride, sending their big back row and midfield carriers into Toc’s defence, where they were met with stern resistance. With a North Manchester move petering out, their ten, standing in at scrum half, box kicked cleverly into space in Didsbury’s 22. A wicked bounce of the ball later and Didsbury were 5-0 down after less than 5 minutes. However, panic didn’t set in and this was the last time that the home side were able to cross Toc’s whitewash.

Some good ball retention in Manchester’s half gave Rory Gibson two kickable penalties and he notched both, for a 6-5 lead, however Didsbury were struggling to break North Manchester down, through a combination of strong defence by the hosts and a tight pitch, which gave Didsbury’s outside backs very little room in which to operate. Both sides swapped further penalties, resulting in Toc taking a slim 9-8 lead at the break.

The key messages at half time were around field position and ball retention. With Didsbury’s set piece on top, and the lineout in particular putting real pressure on their opposition, it was a case of being patient and taking opportunities when they came. One such opportunity came 15 minutes into the half, when a fine line cut by blindside wing Tom Makin created space out wide and good hands from the other backs found fellow wing Dave Hoare in space. Hoare had been well-marshalled thus far, but beat his man and cut back inside the cover defence, before finding Neil Wilkinson with an offload, who went over for the try. Gibson was unable to convert, but there was now a bit more daylight on the scoreboard, at 14-8.

Not for long, however, as Didsbury’s discipline lapsed and North Manchester responded with two converted penalties to level the scores, and found themselves a man up, as Brad Cliff (who had an otherwise fine game) was sin-binned for a technical offence.

Toc managed the sin-bin period well, with Rigby, Regan and James Howarth carrying hard and putting all North Manchester attacks to ground. Gibson added another penalty following an excellent 8-man shove from a scrum and shortly after, from turnover ball, Didsbury attacked down the blindside and Hoare was dragged down inches short of the line, following which scrum half Tom Smith knocked on with the line at his mercy. Didsbury were now firmly on the front foot and Smith had another chance to put the game to bed, however lost control of the ball in the act of scoring. Fortunately it didn’t matter, as a concerted spell of Toc pressure resulted in Tom Makin going over in the corner, taking the score to 22-14. North Manchester, hunting a losing bonus point, were unable to convert a last-minute penalty and the referee brought proceedings to a close.

Having lost games to North Manchester in each of the last two seasons, Didsbury were very pleased to come away with the points. The home side look a much stronger and better organised side this year and will start to get results very soon if they continue to put in performances such as these.

Next weekend, Didsbury welcome Ormskirk to Ford Lane and will be looking to continue the upward trajectory of the past couple of weeks.