Bury 3 – 44 Didsbury Toc H

Didsbury were able to name a fairly strong squad, seeing Tom Rooney continuing his fine run of performances at fullback and welcomed Sean Bishop back to take his place on the wing.

Didsbury started the game below the tempo they would have wanted, and the well organized Bury defence more than coped with the visitor’s early attacks and turned possession over several times. Toc H clearly had the upper hand in the set pieces, with the scrum performing well and good lineout work by Phil Lovely disrupting a lot of Bury’s attacks. The first try came from a great break by Dave Hoare through the middle of the park, with the home sides defence splintered Hoare off loaded to the ever alert Neil Wilkinson who went over by the posts. The conversion was added by Euan Wilder. It looked certain that a second try was then added by prop Steve McDonnough, but the referee judged that the ball hadn’t been grounded much to the dismay of the veteran player. From the resulting scrum, number 8, James Eames picked up from the base and drove over the line. The conversion was missed in the blustery conditions by Wilder. Toc H started to put pace into their attacks and forced Bury to defend. From another attacking scrum number nine Gaz Oakley, who made a number of telling contributions in the game, broke down the blind side to feed Hoare on the wing to score out wide. Again the tricky conversion was missed, but didsbury had already built a commanding 19-0 lead. Bury had chances to open their account, one chance saw their winger drop the ball over the line in the act of scoring, but the resolute Didsbury defence held firm.

The coaching staff of Didsbury asked the squad for more effort in the second half, and the forth try was added within two minutes of the restart. A bombarding run by Eames saw him fall just short of the tryline, but the ball found its way to second row Phil Cooper who cleverly side stepped to touch down by the posts. The conversion was added by Wilder, and he followed this up with a penalty to increase the lead to 29-0. Bury replied with a penalty of their own, but the hard running of Mike Hyde & Dylan Williams through the centre of the field pinned Bury back. Oakley capped a fine performance with a try from a 5 metre scrum and Sean Bishop showed his pace to score the sixth try out wide. The game was wrapped up by a fine break by fullback Tom Rooney, who beat several players and just when it seemed he had been stopped a huge stretch got the ball to the line.

A 3-44 score will please Didsbury, particularly against a side who have caused them problems over recent seasons. Next Saturday Didsbury will look to make ground on the league leaders De La Salle, when the welcome the Salford outfit to Ford Lane, 3pm kick off.