Barclays Lancashire Cup – 2nd round

Barclays Lancashire Cup – 2nd round

Manchester RUFC U11’s 21 pts Leigh RUFC U11’s 26 pts

The first thing to say is a big thankyou to the 20 players who turned out on Sunday for the Leigh game. A fantastic turnout.

Looking at Leigh’s web page last week felt a bit daunting. Only beaten once this season, and very few teams score ANY points against them – they are a very good side, well drilled and they had some really big lads. We had our work cut out.

By far our best team performance of the season started with a superb set piece move. Max took a line out, and threw right over the top to Patrick who took the ball in full flow
weaving his way over for the first try, which he converted himself.

Back came Leigh with their forward power (we still need to tackle the big guys around the legs, not try to block them around the chest), and a sustained period of rucking saw them go over. Although we were winning more than our share of rucks, Leigh were sharper at picking up and moving the ball. We seemed to wait for somebody else to pick it up and go. Leigh missed their conversion so MRUFC still led.

That didn’t last long – Patrick put in another monster kick off which saw us make a lot of ground, and challenge the Leigh line. Leigh came up with the ball and started to make progress back up to the half way line. We had lots of tackling opportunities but, with a few exceptions, nobody seemed to want to tackle their big guys around the legs. Eventually their forward pressure paid off, sucking most of our lads into the ruck area, and allowing their backs to spin it out and their winger went over in the corner. This time they made their conversion count, and it was 7-12.

Anything Leigh can do ….. The next passage of play was very similar – Patrick placed the kick into the danger area – Leigh started to run it back through the forwards ……. Luke tackled the Leigh forward (around the legs!!), and from the ensuing ruck we came up with the ball. New Tom (Walsh)(with the speed and flair of a French winger) evaded 2 or 3 tackles, and outpaced the Leigh defence to touch down. Pat converted and we were back in front 14-12.

Leigh are well drilled, and they stuck to their guns – power plays from the forwards, and sniping from the backs – another line out win (we need to improve here) gave them the platform for another big push. They thought they were over (I did too!!), but the ref gave a 5 metre scrum for ‘held up’. Although Luke put in his trade mark bone shaking tackle on the Leigh scrum half, the ball was picked up by their forwards, and they ran the ball over. Another conversion put Leigh back in front at 14-19.

Back come Manchester, and we are really sensing here that this game could go our way. I remember thinking that ‘I haven’t seen Ciaran burst through, holding of half a dozen tackles to score’. …… Right on cue Mr Booth obliges, finishing off another great forward push with a pick up, avoid tackles, and run for the line. Mr reliable (Pat) puts the extra’s on for a ht 21-19 to Manchester. Phew, I need a cup of tea!!

There’s good and bad news for the second half (in an attempt to keep this brief). The good news is that every single Manchester player played the second half like the first - looking for that killer try – Ciaran almost got there with a pick up from a line out. We improved our tackling, and matched a very big and powerful Leigh side. The bad news is that Leigh scored the only points in the second half to run out 21-26 winners.

From a spectators point of view, by far the most enjoyable game of the season to watch – we were always in it. The Leigh coach was very complimentary at the end of the game and his team and spectators did Leigh proud, playing the game in the right spirit. – We look forward to playing Leigh, again, in the future.

Well done Manchester – use this as a building block.