Manchester travelled over to Sale 1861’s ground today for their first pre-season friendly. This served as the perfect opportunity to put all Manchester’s pre-season grafting into practise, whilst allowing their newbies, Amy Chodorowski and Sophia Carter, to show what they are made of - which they, of course, did! This was also the first time these teams have played against each other... and what a nail biter it was!

Sale 1861 owned the first and second quarter, utilising the gaps created by Manchester’s defensive line, with the score reading 26-5, to the home team, when the half time whistle blew.

However, with this being Manchester’s first game within the 19/20 season, they used those first 40 minutes to blow away the cobwebs, and really came back with a vengeance in the second half. By the fourth quarter, Manchester had levelled the score, 36-36.

A final try and successful conversion, within the last 10 minutes of the game, from Sale 1861, meant that they bagged the win, with a final score of 43-36.

Overall, a great game and Manchester look forward to returning the favour, by hopefully hosting Sale 1861 in the near future, for another friendly.

THE RUN DOWN

Manchester’s Try Scorers:
Rachael Saunders x 2
Jess Gurney
Kate Barker
Amber Smith
Kate Bailey

Manchester’s Conversions:
Rachael Saunders x 3

Manchester’s Players of the Match:
Forward of the match - Sophie Wareing
Back of the match - Kate Barker
Opposition’s player of the match - Kate Barker