Didsbury Toc H 44 - 7 Furness

After a disrupted start to the season which has seen Didsbury win only one of the first three North Lancs & Cumbria fixtures, Didsbury's selection committee was finally able to name a near full-strength squad for the visit of Furness. The home sides strength and experience showed as they scored seven tries to dispatch the Barrow based outfit 44-7.

Toc H started in dominant fashion, and never gave their opponents breathing space for the majority of the match. The deadlock was broken in the opening minutes with Sean Bishop calmly converting a penalty. Didsbury's front five set the tone for the rest of team, disrupting Furness' scrum and lineout to devastating effect, which gave the Didsbury backline a platform to play off. The centre pairing of the experienced Dylan Williams, and the live-wire new recruit Tom Makin combined well to create good ball for wingers Bishop and Dave Hoare. The first try came from Dave Hoare, a typical bullocking run seeing him force his way in at the corner. the tricky conversion was narrowly missed by Bishop. Didsbury quickly returned to the Furness 22, and with scrum-half Gaz Oakley controlling the waves of Didsbury attacks the ball found second row Sean Walker on the wing. With little space to operate in the fleet-footed second row span out of a would be tackle and crash over the tryline. Bishop added the conversion to give the home side a deserved 15-0 lead. Didsbury were able to add two further tries before the break, Oakley found a gap to score under the sticks and Bi
shop finished off a kick and chase. Didsbury's half-time lead of 25-0 was warranted due to their first half performance, and had already secured the four try bonus point.

Furness rallied, if only briefly, at the start of the second half and gained some early territory. This was repelled by some stern Didsbury defence, notably by fullback Olly Thomas. Didsbury added three further tries in the second half, with Hoare completing his brace, only to be outdone by Bishop grabbing a hat-trick. Hoare's second try personified determination, as he got to a ball kicked through when the defence looked sure to get there first. Bishop's second and third tries were created by good handling by Mike Hyde and Gaz Oakley respectively. Furness managed a consolation try under the posts to make the final score 44-7.

With the whole team performing well, Didsbury's coaches would have struggled to pick a man of the match. Sean Bishop had a personal haul of 24 points, Mark Chambers had a stand out game at loosehead prop, but the award went to hard working backrow Aidan Murphy.

Next week Didsbury make another mammoth journey to Cumbria to face St Benedict's.