An early try was scored by Charlie Ding in the second minute, actually his second chance of the game after an ambitious lob over the defence travelled too far. This time, a weave through a static defence arising from a penalty 10 metres out was good for the points. Richard McCartney’s conversion hit the post to keep it at 5-0.

Manchester proceeded to dominate territory and possession, only to be met by a solid backs-to-the-wall defence. When an easy penalty chance was offered for offside, the prudent decision to move the scoreboard on was made; 8-0 with quarter of an hour played.

It felt that Manchester were making hard work of a game that they were in charge of but credit has to be given to the Oswestry defence who were working equally hard (maybe less credit to the Oswestry player who insisted on making “distracting” fog horn sounds during Manchester’s set-pieces, predictably to only comic effect!).

With try scorer Ding suffering an early injury, his able deputy Rick Cross made the next breakthrough, breaking the line, then, realising that he had outran his support, taking the only option by restarting his run and squirming over the line. The conversion from out wide made it 15-0.

After a worryingly long injury break to attend to an Oswestry player, the game restarted with an attacking scrum to Manchester. The ball only needed to travel as far as inside centre Anthony TiaTia who ran through his opposite number to open an ominous lead of 22-0 following McCartrney’s conversion.

Manchester’s fourth try was well deserving of a bonus point on its own merit! A tremendous run by second row Jake Stewart, bursting through from one 22 to the other, and then with the line in site, unselfishly offloading to Matt Davies in support was a memorable score. The 29-0 lead at the break was no more than Manchester deserved.

A first minute try by Tom Fantom from the back of another attacking scrum showed that Manchester were not done for the afternoon (36-0). This was soon added to when TiaTia, who was a handful throughout, linked with Joe Houghton, who took the ball wide before feeding it out to Richard Gosling. With plenty to do and not much room to do it in, Gosling sprinted along the wing before cutting in to touch down. McCartney found the post for the second time, but Manchester were now out of sight at 41-0 with half an hour to go.

Oswestry then showed their character, forcing Manchester to defend for a while. It was unfortunate for them when against the passage of play, Matt Barker got hold of the ball with a gap in front of him. Pinning his ears back, Manchester’s seventh try was scored and it was 46-0.

Oswestry kept their heads up however and when Manchester were reduced to 14 men after a yellow card, the visitors sensed their chance and took it. On the hour mark they were deservedly on the scoreboard at 46-5 following some sustained pressure. The defiant score was soon pulled back however when TiaTia split the defence to make it 53-5 when the extras were added.

Oswestry made the mistake of kicking to that man Stewart from the restart, who made huge ground again from his 22, almost repeating his first half heroics. The ball was spilled this time but Barker was soon on the scoresheet again, the recipient of a quickly taken penalty (58-5).

With ten minutes to go and a daunting scoreline, Oswestry still defended their line manfully, even to the point that a Manchester maul was held up in pursuit of a tenth try. As a result of that effort, a further try never came as Oswestry frustrated rather than threatened in the final period. The afternoon’s work had been done though, and the just rewards for that showed on the scoreboard.