Manchester dominate clash with Sefton

On a day when Sky Sports were in town there is no doubt the biggest North West clash was taking place at Grove Park as we welcomed Sefton, our fellow Lancs QF qualifiers from the wrong end of the M62.
Both sides had players missing due to school commitments or illness and fielded squads of 18 but on a murky morning the intensity and enthusiasm in Manchester’s warm-up definitely set the tone for our approach to the game. Hopefully gone are the days when it would take us 10 minutes to wake up.
Sefton kicked off and Manchester were quickly into their stride, slick handling saw the ball fed out wide to Tom W who broke free from a tackle and raced down the wing to touch down and register the first points of the afternoon. Tom J slotted the first of a fine display of conversion kicking and we were 7-0 up in the opening minute of the game.
The first session was one way traffic against a good team, with the forwards dominating both the set pieces and open play. The backs always dangerous with ball in hand and on the rare occasion Sefton broke free they were met by Will our tackling Terminator at fullback. Following a turnover, Tom W set off again on a trademark searing run to touch down in the left corner and Tom J converted to make it 14-0 after 7 minutes. And on a day when he was almost unstoppable Tom W soon notched his hat-trick of tries with another fine demonstration of balance, aggression and pure speed to make it 21 unanswered points. Just before the end of the first session Sean decided to get in on the scoring with a Lomu’esque run over the Sefton Centres before he broke the line and sprinted away to touch down in the corner. Tom J produced (arguably) his finest conversion kick of the day slotting through the sticks from the left side touchline to make it a perfect 4 out of 4 kicks and the session ended 28-0 to the rampant reds.
The second session continued in the same theme. A great run by Aiden saw him evade the entire Sefton backline before taking out the final defender as he handed the ball to Tom W for an easy try before (in the biggest shock of the day) Tom J missed a kick at goal. However our kicking king quickly made amends as following a scrum on the Sefton 10 metre line he received the ball, sold a classic half backs dummy and went over to score a try himself which he promptly converted to make it 40-0.
It would have been easy for Sefton to give up at this point but they showed great courage and determination to battle back and their spirit was rewarded as they produced some good passing moves to touch down and make it 40-5. They clearly didn’t know that Captain Ciaran doesn’t like anyone scoring on his pitch and he promptly ran the ball back through the entire Sefton defense to touch down under the posts. To their credit Sefton battled back again and the session ended 47-12 following another well taken try by the visitors.
Both sides made changes and to their credit the third session was mainly Seftons’ as some lethargy and indecision crept into the home teams play. Perhaps our early dominance caused the lack of concentration and commitment when we had to defend and the home side shipping two unanswered tries in what was a scrappy end to the game making the final scoreline 47-22
Epilogue
Player of the week was Aiden for his solid tackling, ball distribution and support play. Tom J was mistaken for Jonnie Wilkinson such was the power and accuracy of his kicking and many of the lads gave dominant performances against a side that have beaten some really good sides this season. The 44-22 score line does not reflect our early dominance but does remind us that we still suffer from last season’s disorder of “switching-off” during matches, we should not have lost the third session!