Rochdale In the Fog!

Toc H U 14s travelled to pool leaders Rochdale in our final Lancs Cup qualifying game and narrrowly lost out in a well contested 5 try finale, we sit out the final weekend of matches and await confirmation of final standings.

Gathering at Rochdale in the thick fog we knew we would have a tough match, that would have been the case before the 3 late morning withdrawals to leave us, as is normal this season, with the bare starting 15 again.

From the kick off Toc H contested well with some good early ball won by the forwards and fed out to our wing, some stolen ball and good turnover possession, however the first score was a well worked move by Rochdale feeding through the line for a converted score between the posts within the first 5 minutes.

Toc H continued competing well and a ball kicked long by TR was won by LBP who went over for our first unconverted try.

Rochdale picked up a good lead with 2 excellent scores, a try from an uncontested attacking scrum, using a training ground play, saw their flier break through the middle without Toc H getting anywhere near a tackle on him, and the second inevitably was their BL managing to break through a few tackles to score in the corner, both unconverted.

Toc H set out to give it everything as we would inevitably be hanging on later in the game with no subs, and we rucked well in the first half, retaining possession and winning the odd turnover, and moved the ball quickly to JO out wide who still had plenty to do, but set up the touch line at speed and managed to evade the covering tackles to score in the corner. The conversion attempt very nearly made it!

HT 17-10

Following our committed first half performance we began the second half with an early score, LBP made a typically committed run jinking his way upfield evading tackles up the touch line but was snagged close to the line, before offloading to TR who had kept up and was rewarded for his great support with Toc H's third try.

Toc H took the lead shortly afterwards with their fourth try scored by JO, this was the finishing on what was an excellent set of play with great continuity in forwards and backs and some great decision making, DX switching the play blind initially drawing the defence one way, SM driving it forward before quick hands from SW exposing the numbers and giving JO a one on one which typically ends with a score.

Rochdale though had some powerful runners, not least their No.8 who relished a pick up from an scrum beneath the posts and had enough momentum to avoid any early tackles to power over for a converted try.

On 11 minutes Toc H regained a lead with another excellent break by LBP switching play and going over. It was a shame for LBP that all 5 of Toc H tries left him with some hard conversion attempts, this proved to be the difference in what was a very close match.

Toc H held out with a 1 point lead for a good period, but we can't blame a lack of subs or effort for going behind to Rochdale's fifth try, we were at parity in most areas and Rochdale realised that this was a close one which could go either way. A pick up from their BL again, who we had shackled well from deeper play, but which was simply too close to our line to defend and resulted in a converted score.

It's very hard to find fault with Toc H today, they did so much well, we clearly need to find a way to stop the BL's early, whether we're in the first minute, last minute, with a full bench or like today with the bare 15, but sometimes there just isn't a way when so near our line and when the defence is stretched. We just need to dig deep, keep up the effort, play to our strengths and rely on our own ability to break the line, on another day it will be the difference in a close match. We tackled well, perhaps missing the BL by not tackling at the first opportunity and coped well with the rule changes, not one high tackle to give the Ref any cause to consider a card.

The final 5 minutes were well contested, both attacking opportunities and a good defence, at the death we perhaps should have kept the ball in hand and kept confidence to work through the phases for a winner, that's easy to write in hindsight, however, and if we had done so it would have been a heroic and hard effort and a memorable achievement, but we kicked ahead hoping for some scraps and errors and enough on the clock. The play though was driven out to touch and the final whistle blown to end our hopes of a snatched unforeseen win.

Overall the match was a excellent contest, so much so that as we headed off to the clubhouse Jim nearly forgot to pick up Bilbo who was tied to the bin as he ran the far touchline! Parents were very proud of the lads today summed up in David's coach's notes;

Coach's Notes

"By far the boys' best performance of the season. To play like that with the bare 15 against a strong side who are top of the pool, on a heavy pitch, first game back after the break and knowing there was possibly something to lose by winning the game - simply tremendous!

We set out to compete for the first 20 mins knowing we'd struggle to keep it up but the energy levels and focus when tired and the odd mistake came was remarkable. I'm very pleased for the boys and proud of them. Rochdale are a strong side who play the game in absolutely the right spirit. Thanks to Patrick and his team and we'll look forward to a return fixture next season."