Winning visit for Coach Del on return to boyhood club!

This week the autumn really arrived for the combined Toc H-Broughton Park Under 13s in their game away at Sandbach but the heavy rain didn’t dampen spirts or performances! But did make match reporting difficult as my paper soon got soggy …

The game started pretty evenly, both sides testing each other out, but with neither side getting the upper hand. Despite playing up the slope Toc-BP eventually started to get through and behind the Sandbach defence with some strong driving runs and moving the ball through the hands to find space. After ten minutes Adam burst through on a striding run from just inside the Sandbach half, finally being stopped on the 5m line. However with strength to stay on his feet and quick support from teammates he was driven over the try line to register the first score. This was followed quickly with a try from Luuk.

Toc-BP were soon back besieging the Sandbach try line with a series of rucks before scrum half Luuk popped a short ball to charging No. 8 Seb (I think?) to crash over. Two minutes later a scrum just inside the Sandbach half held firm enough to win our own ball and with a couple of quick passes found its way into centre Jamie's hands who ran strong and direct through a couple of tackles and handed off another before scoring Toc-BP’s fourth try.

Sandbach rallied in the last 5 minutes of the half, first working a score down the left-hand touchline before Toc-BP failed to catch the ball from the restart and Sandbach fly-hacked the bouncing ball through and behind the defence to score an easy try.

In the continuing heavy rain the second half at least saw Toc-BP playing down the slope and with the tide. Early on Toc-BP won a scrum on the Sandbach 5m line and few phases later scored. The rest of third quarter was even until Olly broke free down the right-hand side and looked to be going in for a score until caught by a good cover tackle. But good ball placement and quick ruck support from Angelo saw the ball carried hard and recycled for 6 or 7 phases until eventually Toc-BP crashed over from close range.

Again Sandbach saved their best until last. In the last quarter they were camped for long periods in the Toc-BP half, with several forays to the Toc-BP line which were repelled by our relentless defence. With five minutes left Sandbach eventually broke the Toc-BP defensive resistance to grab their third try. Two minutes later they pressured a clearance kick from Toc-BP which was charged down, regathered and touch down for their fourth try of the match.

Somewhere in the second-half Toc-BP scored another try giving a 35-20 win in tough conditions. It was a committed performance from all the players, particularly in defence and exemplified by several periods where Sandbach battered our try line but were withheld. Also improved was the close ruck support to retain the ball and recycle quickly to willing runners. Prominent in these skills were Leon and Sam M who were duly awarded the Man of Steel for their performances.

This report was brought to you with the ‘help’ of Siri, to voice dictate the action in lieu of writing on paper in the rain. Unfortunately, despite my clear dialect, Siri misinterpreted a few commentaries and produced a few … less than intelligible phrases, such as: “to score after lots of rocking more coastline” and “Four minutes after take-off scram on five meter line then we can go driven over an hour to pick up the school rush hour” Hence some the above may not be truly accurate!