Altrincham Kersal Ladies ( 0 ) v Manchester Ladies ( 71)

Altrincham Kersal Ladies ( 0 ) v Manchester Ladies ( 71)

The match was played on a perfect day for open rugby, with the advantage of a good playing surface on AK ‘s wide first team pitch.
Unfortunately for the homeside on the day Manchester produced one of their most outstanding performances for a number of seasons.

From the kick-off the visitors attacked Altrincham ( AK ) with a great display of handling/offloading in the tackle to quickly build up a very commanding lead . Laura Dudbridge scored three (3) very good tries, all converted by Shannon Bailey. These points were increased through further tries from Hannah Johnson (2) and Lucy Henderson (1) two converted by Shannon Bailey, to take the half time score to 40-0 to Manchester.

It was difficult to see how the team could improve on a very good first half performance and maintain the high intensity of their defence/attacking game.

The whole team continued to attack AK at every opportunity and inserted immense pressure on AK in defence and attack, turning the ball over on numerous occasions. All of this pressure eventually broke down the AK defence and further tries were scored by Laura Dudbridge (1)/Shannon Bailey (2)/ Lucy Henderson (1) and Pam Hallworth completing the try scoring with an excellent team try. Three of the tries were converted by Shannon Bailey to take her points total to 26 ( twenty six ) for the match.
The final score was 71-0 to Manchester ,which did not do justice to the performance and efforts of the Altrincham team and the contribution they made to an excellent game of rugby, played in a good spirit.

All of the Manchester team were outstanding with the inexperienced / new players having very impressive games. A special mention for Jane Duggan whose excellent debut was curtailed by a blood injury.

We hopefully will see this Manchester side developing as a very competitive Unit as the season progresses , they are certainly very entertaining to watch and a good advert for the Women’s game in the Northwest.