Garstang 23 - 20 Didsbury Toc H

For their part, Garstang are hugely improved over the past couple of years and despite having had a mixed start to the season, with two close losses and a win, would present a stern test.

And so it proved – Didsbury took a strong team to Preston, and despite good pre-match preparation, were still caught cold by the intensity of the Garstang start, as they continually sent their strong back-row and midfield runners into the teeth of the Didsbury defence. Toc began to buckle under the stream of attacks and it was only desperate scramble defence that kept Garstang from scoring, following some strong breaks in the centre. The dam burst on 15 minutes, as a turned over lineout resulted in Didsbury being light on the short side and some good handling by Garstang exploited this opportunity and resulted in the opening try, which wasn’t converted.

This stung Didsbury into life and they came back into the game, starting to establish both possession and field position. From one such scrum in the Garstang 22, Toc ran a familiar blindside move, from which good hands by Foster and scrum half Olly Thomas allowed Dave Hoare the space to brush off the final tackle and go over in the corner. Thomas was unable to add the extras.

Now back in the game, Didsbury went straight to sleep and proceeded to knock on the resulting Garstang kick-off. A good spell of position for the home team followed, which was finished off by the home team’s left winger stepping in off his wing and cutting a great line through the Didsbury defence to make the score 12-5, with the resulting conversion. Again Toc surged back, which resulted ten minutes later in a second try for Hoare, following good hands by skipper Tom Makin. Again, Thomas was unable to convert and, indeed, Didsbury’s inability to put the ball over the sticks was to come back to haunt them later in the game.

Toc were now on the front foot and a superb break by fly-half Gaz Oakley again took them into the Garstang 22. Due to over-elaboration, it looked like the move had broken down, but that man Hoare was again on hand to take a pop pass from Oakley in midfield and stretch over for his and Didsbury’s, third try. This was Hoare’s 7th try in just his second game of the season and he has managed to move ahead of wing rival Enita Okodiko, who has notched up 4, this term. Thomas was again unable to convert and the half finished with the score at 15-12 to Didsbury.

Toc conceded two kickable penalties in the first quarter of an hour of the second half and Garstang’s kicker happily took the points on offer, taking them into an 18-15 lead. With twenty minutes to play, Didsbury then took the lead 20-18, as Thomas dummied his way over from a scrum in the Garstang 22, but again, were unable to add the extras. After his earlier try-scoring exploits, Hoare then blotted his copybook with 15 minutes to go, when he was adjudged to have deliberately knocked the ball on, in order to prevent a Garstang attack. While Hoare will claim that he was going for the intercept, the laws of the game being as they are, mean that he cannot have too many complaints with the referee’s decision and he was dispatched to the sin bin for a ten minute breather. Garstang exploited the extra space available in the backs and their 13 managed to get on the end of a flowing move and smartly dummy his way through to the line, with five minutes to play, to take them back into a 23-30 lead. Didsbury threw everything at Garstang in the last few minutes, but some imprecise play and mixed decision-making (as well as one highly-questionable not-straight throw ruling) meant that they couldn’t get over the line.

However, they were handed one last golden opportunity to draw the match, following an infringement by Garstang, but Thomas’s penalty kick from just to the left of the sticks hit the upright and bounced to safety, with the final whistle blowing soon after.

Credit must go to Garstang, who have become a strong, highly competitive outfit and will turn over a number of good teams this season, particularly on their home turf. Despite picking up two losing bonus points, Didsbury will be frustrated, however, as despite being pretty clinical when in the red zone (the last 5 minutes excepted) they were unable to get enough ball and field position to put Garstang under consistent pressure. There’s plenty for the coaching team to ponder as North Lancashire 1 takes a break this weekend and Didsbury resume their league calendar on 11th October with a tasty-sounding clash at home to old foes Littleborough.

Garstang's match report, along with some videos (video nasties?) from the game can be viewed here:

https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/garstangrufc/s/match-centre-92821/1-984529