No gifts from Thorntons

Off the back of four successive wins in NL1, Didsbury travelled to Thornton Cleveleys, hoping to continue their recent good form. Despite recording three wins over their opposition in recent seasons, this is a tough away trip (Didsbury won just 12-10, via a final minute try, last year) and Toc were under no illusions that Thornton, with whom we have forged strong relationships off the pitch, would be anything like as charitable, on it. The pack was nearly unchanged from last week, with Phil Dodds returning to the fray, but with veteran playmaker Neil Wilkinson away, Mark Chambers came back into the side at 12, after a layoff of several months from first XV rugby. Jamie Peacock came back into the 9 shirt, to partner a somewhat peaky looking Gaz Oakley, who had roused himself from his sick-bed to make the side.

Toc elected to play into the teeth of a strong coastal wind in the first half, safe in the knowledge that the weather looked set in and that they would enjoy its benefits in the second half. As a result, the gameplan was to keep things tight up front, monopolise possession and look for opportunities to counter-attack with ball in hand, once a platform had been built. Following a strong attacking lineout and some good phase-play, Didsbury were awarded a penalty in front of the sticks and Peacock duly converted. Thornton came straight back and, perhaps surprisingly, elected to keep ball in hand and try to stretch Didsbury with their pacy backline and direct running midfield, rather than use the strong wind at their backs. After a period of possession in the Didsbury half, a break in midfield from Thornton got behind Toc and the home side’s fullback hit a strong line to take him in for an unconverted 5 pointer.

Didsbury didn’t panic and five minutes later, a midfield scrum laid a good platform for a counterattack – excellent hands from Oakley and skipper Tom Makin gave Dave Hoare the ball in space, on the half way line. With no-one in front of him, Hoare went in for the try, which was superbly converted into the wind, by Peacock. 10 minutes later, another blindside break down the same side resulted in another score, this time for Conor Crowe, who ran an excellent support line and showed good strength to hold off the last defender. Peacock couldn’t convert, and with no further scores added, Didsbury went into half time 15-5 to the good, surely a match-winning margin, with the elements soon to be in their favour.

However, the elements had other ideas, and seemingly as the teams switched ends, the sun came out and the gales reduced to the occasional gust. The early running in the half was Didsbury’s, although several good opportunities to extend the lead were passed up. This gave Thornton heart and they began to get more of a platform in the pack and stretch Didsbury in the backs, with the strong running 12, in particular, prominent, however the final pass was not going to hand. Didsbury thought that they had put the game to bed, when a surging run and neat offload by Phil Dodds found Dave Foster in the 22; Foster, showing footwork worthy of Strictly Come Dancing, stepped the last defender and went over under the posts, for Toc’s third try, which was converted by Peacock. At 22-5, surely it was now all about the fourth try, a bonus point, and a few beers in Blackpool?

Not a bit of it, Thornton came charging back and the game breaking up suited their attacking gameplan and commitment to throwing the ball about. Five minutes later, they scored a converted try under the posts and followed it up with another score, when a promising Didsbury attack was turned over in the home side’s 22 and their scrum half sniped and set off on a lung-bursting 80 yard dash to the line. Despite the despairing efforts of backrower Mark Harrison (who had an excellent match and looked resplendent in his new hot pink ballerina shoes), he made it, taking the score to 22-17 – very much game on. With 10 minutes left to play, both sides had further opportunities to score, but Toc just about managed to hang on for the win.

Didsbury will be slightly frustrated that they let a good lead slip, but were ultimately delighted to come away from Thornton with the win – the home side play a good brand of rugby, have become extremely competitive in recent times and have turned over a number of strong sides on their turf, so four points was a good return and took Toc’s winning run to 5 matches. We wish Thornton well for their run-in and thank them for their superb hospitality, which we look forward to reciprocating next year.

Toc’s attention now turns to the re-arranged fixture at Littleborough next week, in which they will be looking to avenge the narrowest of home defeats from earlier in the season.