Never In Any Doubt! (Well...)

Manchester U15 Girls were pleased to be offered the first team pitch to entertain Merit League pacesetters Liverpool St Helens. LSH were undefeated this season and had amassed almost 100 points in their two league games, conceding only two tries. A tough game was a certainty.
Manchester received the ball from kick off but were not able to gain much ground. A speculative, perhaps impatient, kick up field by Rebecca Scholes was easily fielded unfortunately, and it immediately became apparent just how LSH had managed to score so many points. From inside her own half, LSH’s flying winger sprinted over the line for an early score. 0-5 and lesson learned!
After the early disappointment, Manchester soon began to advance into their opponent’s half and Emily Houghton was very unlucky not to score when pulled down illegally 10 metres from the line. The first tap-and-go didn’t work but with the defence well offside a second penalty was awarded. Same again, but this time the ball was moved slickly in field until it was received by Meg Standring who dived over under the posts for Becky to convert to 7-5. Welcome back Meg!
Manchester were having a torrid time in the scrum against a very good LSH pack. This allowed their pack to provide the base for some very good back play, splitting Manchester’s defence to regain the lead 7-10 with a second unconverted try.
It was Manchester who turned round at half time with the advantage however, after a superb team try involving forwards and backs. Leanne Murray first made some good ground along the left wing. Some excellent support running from Jess Johnson carried the move on and into the 22. Despite the winter break and a tough first half, the forwards were soon there and the LSH defence had no answer to a powerful drive by Charlee Chambers to bring the score up to 12-10 to Manchester.
The second half started with pressure from Manchester again but it was Liverpool St Helens who were the first to score. Manchester felt aggrieved that an apparent knock on went unnoticed and a lack of concentration was seized upon with a breakaway try from practically the full length of the field. Some determined tracking back almost saved the score but the advantage had once again swung back to LSH, this time with a conversion to follow to make the score 12-17.
It was vital not to let the gap grow and another excellent try was set up by Becky from midfield, who took the ball to the 22 before releasing her support runners, inevitably Emily Houghton on her shoulder, but this time it was Manchester’s other Emily (Sumner) who was able to grab the points and level the score at 17 apiece.
The game could not have been more finely balanced in score, ability and commitment. It was LSH who were to gain the upper hand next though with a good forwards drive outpowering a seemingly tiring Manchester pack to edge ahead 17-22.
Calling on reserves of energy, Manchester chased the restart hard and in their desperation to stop the Manchester attack, several defenders were caught offside. The obvious option was a quick tap-and-go from perhaps 10 metres out, after all this had worked in the first half... this time the pressure told however and the tap was dropped, conceding a defensive scum to LSH. All was not lost as Manchester’s pack had improved dramatically as the game went on and a perfectly timed drive forced the visitors backwards. Meg had made a real nuisance of herself all afternoon and gave the LSH No.9 no time whatsoever to recover. Becks spotted the disarray in their half backs, pounced on the loose ball, and charged over to level the scores once again. With so much riding on the conversion, the best kick of the game followed with Captain Scholes converting her own try to make it 24-22.
After a superb effort, the visitors seemed to wilt just slightly at this point. Manchester’s forwards now believed in themselves and wrecked another LSH scrum between their 10m line and 22. Meg spotted a gap and took the ball on the blind side with Becky alert and rounding the scrum on the open side to link with her scrum half. A very well deserved try was scored by Emily Houghton in support of Becky. Emily had been tireless in attack and defence from start to finish and it was good to see here on the score sheet as well as everywhere else! It took a third conversion from Becky to generate more than one score between the teams for the first time in the match: 31-22.
Liverpool St Helens were still not beaten though. Some solid defending was needed from Manchester but LSH’s determination as much as anything else resulted in them equalling Manchester’s try count with a fifth one of their own to bring them back to within a score at 31-27. With no little relief from the home side, the referee watched the missed conversion, looked down at his watch and blew for full time.
So how tight was this game? Well the lead only changed hands six times!
LSH 0-5; Manchester 7-5; LSH 7-10; Manchester 12-10: H/T.
LSH 12-17; Level 17-17; LSH 17-22; Manchester 24-22; Manchester 31-22; Manchester 31-27: F/T.