Ruskin Rattled...

A bright but blustery day saw the wind behind the visitors’ backs for the first half. The wind in fact resulted in a half way scrum to Manchester as the kick off was misjudged and failed to make ten metres. Five minutes later Doug Day used the elements to his advantage and slotted his first for a 0-3 lead.

Although the tricky wind was making for a kicking lottery at times, Manchester felt lucky and chose to make ground as best they could, rather than keeping the ball in hand. Ruskin Park had little option but to run the ball and they did this to some effect thanks to some apparent mismatches in midfield which allowed them to make far more ground than they rightly should. The game settled outside the 22s until a penalty for handling in a ruck allowed the hosts to kick for touch and set up good field position. When this was followed by another penalty, a quick tap-and-go, neatly spread out wide opened huge gaps in the Manchester defence for a converted 7-3 home lead after 18 minutes.

Luke Tyrrell, all elbows as usual, constantly made himself awkward to tackle and from such a run he forced play back into the Ruskin Park 22. As the forwards pushed towards the line, the referee spotted a defender offside and the three points were taken rather than risking more at this relatively early stage (7-6).

The half hour arrived with Park extending their lead however, when a superb take from an ambitious pass in midfield opened Manchester’s defensive doors. Another good pass made for the try of the day and the break was reached with the score 12-6 to the hosts, with two tries to two penalties being a fair reflection of the match so far.

Fortunately for Manchester, the breeze contrived to drop for the second half so that the expected disadvantage never materialised. However Ruskin Park started the more lively with some impressive forward play. When a scrum was awarded deep into the Manchester 22, the home pack were well in control and although a couple of drives were held, the third drive was too much. A daunting 17-6 gap opened up which could have been worse had the kicker not attempted a drop kick conversion when his kicking tee failed to arrive in time!

Although the Park kickers did not have the advantage of the wind that Manchester had, they did seem to benefit from some generous judgements of the distance kicked at times. Nonetheless the hour mark was reached with no further score. A change was forced on Manchester when a nasty knock meant that Chris Lloyd had to leave the field, so that replacement 9 Matt Beasley was partnered by Doug Day at 10 for the remainder of the game. Before the new look back line could settle a far too easy try was conceded and Manchester were apparently down and out at 24-6.

This, of course, signalled a Manchester revival and Luke Tyrrell was the first try scorer with an unstoppable burst down the wing cutting back in to aid the conversion to make it 24-13.

Home tempers frayed at this mini revival and a full scale revival began when a five metre scrum was won as a result of panic in the Ruskin Park ranks as they were forced to take the ball over their own line. With the momentum well and truly with Manchester when Gareth Bridgman scored their second try, Park’s indiscipline resulted in their second yellow card as the referee’s judgement was loudly and repeatedly questioned and his patience tested. A superb conversion by Day closed the gap to 24-20 with numerical advantage now with Manchester.

Unfortunately the referee’s patience had lasted just a little too long and the visitors didn’t have enough time to make the advantage count. In fact it was Ruskin Park who nearly had the last word as the game finished somewhat unsatisfactorily in the Manchester 22 leaving the visitors just one score short of that elusive away win.