Flower Power

Manchester kicked off and proceeded to set up camp deep in Barnsley’s half with play moving across their 22 for several minutes. Eventually the defence were caught offside but an easy three points in front of the posts was turned down as Manchester wanted more from their established field position.

This looked to be the right decision as Manchester advanced towards the line from Amy Lees’ tap, and as the ball was moved out to the wing, Harriet Parsons from full back was brought down just metres short. Barnsley’s defence continued to hold firm and slowly but surely they pushed Manchester back, but still could not escape their own half.
Manchester suffered a couple of injuries at this point, one to Rachael Knowles who had to leave the field, which disrupted the intensity of the exciting but scoreless first half hour. Finally the breakthrough came but it was Barnsley who made the telling run from deep to get their first score, taking the 5-0 lead to the half time break.

Manchester had played so well in the first half that with only the one score between the teams, Manchester would probably have still been considered favourites to take control of the game. However, with Barnsley kicking off, the visitors were caught napping and were very lucky not to concede a try straight from the restart. A try saving tackle from Alyx Maw bundled the Barnsley winger into touch but only on the five metre line. Amber Smith was lifted high to win the crucial lineout but Manchester found it difficult to clear and stayed pinned in their 22.

A knock-on left Manchester having to defend a five metre scrum but Barnsley won it cleanly. Then, from a good angle, the Barnsley attacker was able to burst through for their second unconverted try at 10-0.
After the initial second half onslaught the chance to kick off seemed almost a relief as it was now Manchester’s turn to exercise pressure and they really should have scored on a number of occasions. Whether it was a lack of confidence or force of habit wasn’t clear, but too often backs cut back inside rather than using their pace, or forwards chose to take the ball back into contact rather than letting their half backs deal with it.

As if to confirm the opportunities missed, finally the ball was actually moved along the backs and Hannah Johnson was given a rare opportunity to round the defence to grab Manchester’s try and bring the result back to within touching distance at 10-5.

Unfortunately all that good work was almost immediately undone, when the restart was poorly fielded and Barnsley were allowed to burst through to re-establish their two score lead at 15-5. With the match still close, Barnsley decided to tighten things up and a series of very slow scrums combined with some disruptive niggles from their front row, served to wind the clock down leaving Manchester increasingly frustrated.

With Barnsley now having the luxury of several rolling subs versus a Manchester side that had arrived with a bare minimum of players, Barnsley began to take control and finally made the telling score with a couple of minutes remaining. Alyx was injured as the ball was driven over which left a tiring Manchester a couple of players short against a Barnsley team now on a high. It was almost inevitable that the last move of the game resulted in their second score in as many minutes to skew the final score to 25-5 and deny Manchester even a losing bonus point.

Ultimately Manchester’s undoing was a compromised back line due to the unavailability of a number of players and a continuing lack of self confidence in attack. This side will be difficult to beat however if the teamwork that was shown in defence for the first hour, can be combined with the individual attacking skills that we know are there. To prove this point we now look forward to a full squad (please!) for our first home match of the season on Halloween at Grove Park.