Sunday 20th Nov – Lancashire Cup Round 1

The scene was set – misty murky mild morning after a raucous, rowdy night at the Rugby Club ball – some parents were only able to grunt at each other until some caffeine had reached the parts that the beer had the night before. No broiling gods of rugby looking down today – just misty and murky or was that just me!

Fortunately the boys had not been partying the night away.

First game was against Bury – Two halves of 15mins each.
Manchester played a great first half with lovely passages of expansive play – the ball heading out and starting to come back along the line. Bury were finding it hard to keep up with Manchester at this stage and great play by the whole team brought about the first try. The ball was won from a Manchester ruck and maul, fed across the pitch in a series of fine passes, finally finding the try scorer who, after a good run, scored. The second try began with the ball being won at a defensive scrum then passed to a Manchester player who made a great dummy move to score. Both tries were converted in this half taking it to 14 – 0 to Manchester at the end of the first half.

The second half started with great views of Simon’s bottom in shorts, and, tasty as it is, so was the boys’ rugby. The half started off more clumsily than the first half and not as fast flowing. However, after the third try a great solo effort, with the scorer bursting through several tackles, the play began to flow better with great passages of play, particularly the ever improving passing part of our game and some excellent support play at the rucks. This led to two further tries in quick succession. The fourth came straight from the Bury kick off after the third try. The ball was caught cleanly by the Manchester full back who passed it out to an onrushing team mate. He made a great run down the touchline before finding a support player who sprinted over the line to score. Try number five came immediately after the kick off and was a great solo run through the Bury defence by the try scorer. None of these tries were converted. Mrs Johnson managed to turn up at this stage (having dragged herself out of bed), to watch the last try (a fine team effort - well worth the entrance fee alone) which was converted to leave the final score:

36 – 0 to Manchester

The second game was against Broughton Pk.
Didn’t see the first bit Rhys as was watching Harry a bit v Stockport – so some comments welcome...

Thanks Steph. It looked like Pantomime season had come early to Grove Park, and this year’s production was Jack and the Beanstalk. Broughton Park have some very tall lads in their team and to begin with our boys seemed to be afflicted with Feefiphobia - the fear of giants! Calls of “They’re behind you!” probably didn’t help. Broughton Pk looked fast and strong and passed the ball out well. Sealy senior was prowling up and down the touchline. They were difficult to catch when they got the ball and managed to make their way down the pitch quickly keeping the pressure on Manchester. Their kicking led to an opportunistic try where they made great distance to touch a loose ball down over the try line. Back to you, Steph.

The first half ended 2 – 0 to BP. Manchester had not managed to break down their defences but came back after half time really up for it. What a change! We worked as hard back as BP did. The belief came back. We put the tackles in and now it was obvious that Manchester wanted the ball and wanted to score and this was evident in their play. We did not lie down and give up but came back at them. As a team we ran at them, tackled them hard and forced them into make errors and hurried passes. We managed a great try in the end, described by a Manchester parent as “A cheeky little number” and this was converted to make the final score – stopped here Rhys – don’t think I know what the final score was!!!! Hangover must have got the better of me by that stage...

... It was 4 - 1 to BP, Steph! On our second half showing we deserved a couple more tries but this shouldn't take away from the fine handling and passing of the Broughton Park team.

There was a video taken of the two matches (grudgingly by Anna Davenport, Sion’s mum, who’d brought the camera along in the mistaken belief that the Samoan rugby team were at the club training). A copy has been made for the coaches but if anyone else would like a copy ask Rhys. Hopefully she’ll have her DVD recorder with her again on the day the Fijians use our scrum machine.

So, a mixed day – some great rugby and some lessons learned. (I wonder whether any of the parents have learned anything about what alcohol does to you!)