Try, Try but not Again!

Manchester/Sandbach/Northwich started strongly, playing an offloading game rather than taking the ball into contact. This approach caused BET Saxons problems and it wasn’t long before Rebecca Scholes touched down for her first try....or did she? Unfortunately for Manchester the referee over ruled his touch judge, deciding that the ball had not been grounded.

Becks would surely have swapped her Player of the Match award for either that score or her second disallowed try. On the later occasion, the referee was again unhappy about the grounding and awarded a defending scrum, having apparently spotted a knock on as the ball was taken over the line.

Manchester used the game to provide Merit League debuts for two of their new recruits, Beth Price and Leanne Murray. Without a doubt these will be key players in the side, both linking well with Eleanor Harper and Emily Houghton in attack.

In fact, it was after a good offload from Eleanor that Emily frustratingly had a try disallowed as well, when she was adjudged to have been held up on the line, although from the sidelines it was unclear which defender could have been near enough to either the ball or to Emily to have achieved this.

Half time arrived with Manchester leading, despite their disappointments. Charlee Murfitt played a storming game leading the forwards, and had opened the scoring after a great charge to the line. Becks converted so that the teams turned around 7-0 up.
BET Saxons were able to equalise after the break and the turning point came when Rachael Knowles who had been bravely carrying a thigh injury had to come off. The hosts chose not to take a player off to even up the sides, and partly due to that advantage they were able to build what looked like a commanding lead at 21-7, with two more converted tries.

Manchester played on determinedly whilst still at a numbers disadvantage and Rebecca was able to close the deficit by converting her own try. With a few minutes to go, Rachel came back on despite some discomfort to balance up the sides again.

Towards the end of the game, Rebecca scored her second (allowed) try. This brought the score to within two points of BET’s tally with the conversion to come to level the match. Unfortunately, the referee chose to provide some over “helpful “ refereeing advice counting down the time allowed before the kick needed to be made. This undoubtedly added to the pressure on the kicker, and despite two out of two so far, this third conversion kick was missed.

It has to be accepted that young officials as well as young players need to gain experience and mistakes will inevitably be made, but it was certainly Manchester who were most frustrated on the day. Despite that however, the standard of play by both teams was high and both Manchester and BET Saxons can expect to have successful campaigns in the league.