Up Dale & Over the Brook

Today's visitors brought a strong squad of 14 down to Manchester to make sure that their home record against us would continue away from home.The Manchester coaches decided to blend experience with raw enthusiasm with a new look scrum of Nathan, Dan and Matthew with the backs for the first match being, Josh at No.9, Charles, Louis, Ethan, Tom Mac and Will completing the line up.

Game 1:
MRC 5v25 Rochdale

The R/dale skipper for the day was Daniel and he won the toss and elected to play. MRC Skipper, Josh, took advantage of the slope and Game 1 was off. Immediately, R/Dale turned to their tried and tested format of running straight through Manchester and within seconds of the start Manchester were 1 score down and a whitewash looked on the cards. The question was, would the Manchester heads drop, the answer was a resounding NO!! R/Dale were pinned back for the next 2 minutes whilst Josh led from the front, pushing and prodding his forwards ever on. With the line in sight, head down , Josh took up the running only to be dragged down by a pack of R/Dale players, intent on protecting their line. With Josh isolated, the ball was turned over and on came the Dale. Charles made a desperate tackle but the offload kept the momentum with R/Dale. Will came in with the tackle of the day to crunch the Dale runner and when R/Dale came away again with the ball, swift passing saw them go over in the corner for their second try. It was the same for Dales' next try with Manchester spending the next 5 minutes throwing wave after wave of attacks at Rochdale only to be repelled time and time again and for Dale to eventually wrestle the ball free and mount the ultimate counter with their third score of the day coming just before the stroke of half time. The second half saw Manchester starting with the ball and Josh effortlessly ran over for the first score of the half after goods hands from Ethan saw Josh free. Could this be the turnaround? Sadly not, from the restart R/Dale powered straight through, ran over Dan and stomped to another try, leaving Manchester players strewn the length of the pitch. Were they bowed though? Of course not, they raised themselves for the next R/Dale onslaught and continued to assault the Dale line in a valiant attempt to bring respectability to the scoreline. Again they were undone through getting isolated and R/Dale ran away for another try to finish the game worthy victors though they knew they had been in a game.

Game 2:
MRC 10v25 Rochdale
Five replacements came on in Game 2 with the front row looking more usual with Ollie, Myles and Bill entering the fray. Again Josh took up the scrum half position with H Bomb outside him and Joseph and Charles forming the central pairing, Will and Tom Mac stayed out on the flanks to use their pace where they could and to dissuade R/Dale from running round Manchester with their speed and strong tackling acting as a reminder that Dale would not have it all their own way. It was a breathtaking second match with both sides really up for it. Obviously Dale scored within seconds of the start and again 2 minutes later, but from then on, Manchester bettered them in the loose and pressed for the tries that were warrantied with such strong rugby. Josh went over after 6 minutes to half the deficit but as the half drew to a close, first Dale went over, then from the restart, Charles went on one of his hazy runs to come in at the break only one try behind. The second half proved too much for the battered and bloodied Tigers and two further tries from R/Dale completed the game with a final 5 scores to 2 victory for the visitors.

Today's totally awesome Tigers were (tries in brackets): Bill,Charles(1), Dan, Ethan, Harrison, Josh(2), Joseph, Louis, Matthew, Myles, Nathan, Ollie, Tom Mac and Will.

No.1 Defender: Matthew
Tackle of the Week: Will
Player of the Week: Myles

Next week finds us at home to Sale Scorpions, a side that we beat earlier in the season and who will be looking to turn us over on home soil. Let's look to stop that happening with some great rugby and lots of tries.

Roll on Sunday! Ian