Didsbury Toc H 37-17 Egremont

Didsbury named by far their strongest line-up of the season with Ashley Chivers making his first start of the campaign at centre, and even with Andre Swan on holiday Toc H were still able to name a very strong backrow of Foster, Harrison and Murphy.

The game could not have started any better for the hosts, with Didsbury kicking off Egremont caught the ball and looked to return a kick. But Mark Harrison charged the attempted clearance down, and gathered the loose ball allowing the pack to trundle towards the tryline. The maul was stopped by Egremont short of the line, but quick ball was passed to winger Jon Mullins who raced in at the corner. Olly Thomas’ conversion attempt dropped just short, but the home side had a dream start. A strength of the Didsbury side so far this season has been the set-piece scrums and lineouts, and this was prevalent again from the early exchanges in this match with second rows Shaun Walker and Phil Dodd in dominant form. Didsbury’s second, and arguably their best try came from a rampaging run by Mark Harrison. Some good offloading play created space for Harrison to break from the halfway line, and after skilfully beating several would be tacklers he used his speed to touch down by the posts. Thomas adding the extras to see Didsbury into a 12-0 lead. Didsbury were quickly back into the Egremont 22, with a well-placed penalty kick by Gaz Oakley to touch. From the resulting lineout Shaun Walker caught the ball, and the home pack drove over the tryline, with captain Mike Hyde responsible for grounding the ball. Thomas missed the conversion, but soon increased the lead to 20-0 with a well-taken penalty. Didsbury completed a storming first half with another Mullins try out wide, and with it secured a league bonus point. Again the tricky conversion was missed, but the commanding lead of 25-0 looked very comfortable for Toc H. Egremont were able to respond with a score just before the break, with a penalty kick 25-3.

With both sides wearing slightly similar shirts, Didsbury and the referee made the decision to change at halftime to their alternative white shirts. With this change the referee appeared to alter his approach to the game, with the penalty count against Didsbury nearing the 40 mark. This drastically hampered the flow of the game, and Didsbury’s first half dominance waned slightly. Egremont struck first in the second half with a forward drive resulting in a try by the posts to close the gap to 25-10. Didsbury’s pack again rose to the fore and after a number of drives taking them up to the Egremont line, and with Hyde breaking free he was able to slip the ball to Dave Foster who forced his way over for a try, and Thomas added the extras to take the lead to 32-10. The game was wrapped up with Mullins completing a deserved hattrick, again showing his guile to beat his opposite number to touch down in the corner. At 37-10 and with the game deep, deep into injury time Egremont scored a consolation try, which was converted well to finish the game 37-17.

Winger Jon Mullins was rightly named man of the match, but the whole team performed well and the coaches will look to push on with a visit to Keswick next Saturday.