County Derby

There were enough promising signs in the opening match at Vale of Lune for the girls to arrive at Moss Farm with some optimism. The repeat of the damp and blustery conditions that Lancashire had offered didn’t dampen spirits as the team prepared for this eagerly awaited match. Although missing Ellie Davidson this week, Manchester were pleased to have Michaela Gurney in the side for the first time. The rest of the team was unchanged.

With both teams having nine players available it was agreed to play eight per side across the pitch. Manchester started well but a few missed tackles allowed a speedy Northwich player to run in a try within the first few minutes. Pleasingly the result of this initial shock was to make Manchester switch on and play some rugby with a great team spirit.

With our scrum of Caitlin Knight, Jess Davids and Rachael Jones dominating, both on our put in and theirs, the forwards were able to ensure that Jess Johnson playing at scrum half could feed our backs good ball. Ellie’s absence had forced this change but that gave the opportunity to bring Olivia Farrow to No.10 to allow Manchester to experiment with a new half back pairing. This resulted in some great running by Manchester’s back line of Chloe Snape, Georgia Miskelly and Michaela.

After the very early setback, Manchester arrived at the break with a commanding first half lead of 36-5. By full time Manchester has increased their advantage to finish with a convincing 62-12 scoreline against some familiar and experienced Northwich and Glossop players.

Special mention must be given to Chloe whose strong running resulted in four tries and also six conversions on the day. Olivia wasn’t far behind her on the scoreboard, running strongly throughout to score her three tries.

Rachael’s try is already becoming typical of her play, ignoring the attentions of would be tacklers to score a second try in as many matches. Jess J ran the length of the pitch to score hers and in her debut match Michaela also ran nearly the whole length of the pitch to score her first ever try in her long awaited first game.

We were pleased to welcome back to the team Casey Thompson (a little bit sooner than expected!) who was determined to play the last few minutes and very nearly scored on her comeback from a broken leg.

Well done girls, we knew you could do it, let’s have more of the same next time!

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