De La Stalled.....!

Della have had a terrific season, winning all 18 league matches comfortably and were in a position to secure promotion on Saturday. For their part, Didsbury are emerging from a period of inconsistency and starting to put together some better performances, which is being driven by a stronger squad and increased competition for places. On Saturday, they welcomed Dave Hoare, Shaun Walker, Phil Dodds, Mark Harrison and Jamie Peacock back into the starting line-up, although had to make some tweaks to the pack, with the talismanic Anthony Ames away being taken up the Eiffel Tower and Jon Walker on a dog-sledding weekend in Finland. Into their places stepped Dafydd Williams at loosehead and the mighty Tim Trapp at tighthead, making his first start for the ones since coming back from injury.

On a damp, chilly March Saturday, the game kicked off at a frantic pace, with Della exuding the confidence of a team with a 20 point league lead and pinning Didsbury back in their 22, with a series of drives and clever interplay between forwards and backs. Although Toc’s early defence was strong, the deadlock was broken after quarter of an hour, when De La’s 12 gave a lovely delayed ball to the 13, who was running a good line at pace through the middle. Although dragged down short of the line, the ball was recycled quickly, enabling the second row to crash over near the sticks. The conversion was added and you could perhaps be forgiven for thinking that the floodgates were about to open, especially when Della elected to kick for the corner, rather than take a simple three points, shortly after.

However, this Toc team are made of sterner stuff than that and a collective vow was made to get in Della’s faces and disrupt their attacking plan. This was personified by centre James Turner, who put in a series of massive hits on any forward or back who came down his channel and slowly but surely, Didsbury began to establish better field position, through a combination of clever kicking and judicious decision-making by half backs Jamie Peacock and Gaz Oakley. A great break down the left by Pete Davies and Enita Okidiko, was a shot across Della’s bows and Didsbury were rewarded for their effort when a good long pass by Turner found Dave Hoare in space on the 10m line on his wing. With his opposite number, the number 8 and the fullback in front of him, Hoare still had plenty to do, but he pinned his ears back, smoked the cover defence and went over in the corner. Peacock’s conversion was just short, but Toc were ticking again.

Further good field position was established and, with Didsbury’s set piece, led by skipper Mike Hyde, now getting on top, momentum had firmly shifted. A Peacock penalty from wide right shaved the bottom of the crossbar and Didsbury believed that they had a strong case for a penalty try, after a Della scrum simply disintegrated on their own line. However, the man in the middle had other ideas and reversed the put-in. Toc pressed and pressed, but couldn’t add any further scores and went in to half time trailing 5-7.

A cheap offside penalty from the kick off enabled Della’s kicker to add a further three points at the start of the second half, but the momentum remained with Didsbury. On 50 minutes, a great piece of anticipation on a bouncing ball resulted in left wing Enita Okidiko streaking away from the cover defence and going in under the posts. Peacock added the extras and followed this up by adding a further penalty 10 minutes later, taking Didsbury into a 15-10 lead. By this point, Toc had got on the right side of the referee and were able to play in the right areas of the pitch, as Della’s indiscipline at the tackle area began to let them down.

However, any suspicion that Della were going to go roll over was to be proven wrong, as the away side came storming back through a series of big carries, led by the back and second row. Didsbury’s defence remained strong, however, with Turner, Makin, Anstey and the back-row of Harrison, Murphy and Craig making a series of shuddering hits in midfield. It looked like there was to be no way through, however on 79 minutes, with Toc disorganised on the short-side following a mammoth defensive effort, Della were able to work the space and send the 10 over in the corner. The difficult conversion was missed and the spoils were shared as Della elected to get the ball off the field as quickly as possible, from the subsequent re-start.

Although disappointed that they couldn’t hold on for the win, Didsbury can take a lot from this performance and were delighted with the showing against a very strong De La Salle side, whom we wish well in the North Lancs/Cumbria league next season. The league enters its final phase in a couple of weeks, when Didsbury take the fun-bus to Thornton Cleveleys, and Toc will be looking to maintain recent positive momentum and finish the season as strongly as possible.

Report by David Hoare