Monster Manch!

Match Report by Matthew Miles

A sunny September afternoon saw the visit of a Collegiate side who were looking to build on their record of 3 wins out of 3.

As for Manchester, with 4 players making their first appearance of the season, the worry was that we could be about to witness a group of strangers rather than a well organised team. However, nothing could be further from the truth as after just 2 minutes the home side made a perfect start when Conor crashed over to score the opening try after a decent break from Luke. Will Harrison converted to make it 7-0.

Despite Manchester being camped in the opposition half, Collegiate made the most of their few opportunities and they struck back after 15 minutes. A quick tap penalty caught Manchester’s defence napping and Collegiate capitalised to score an unconverted try. 7-5.

The rest of the half ran to script. Quick thinking by Tom and Luke created an opening for Sam to finish off his team mates’ good work and score a try which was again converted by Will Harrison. 14-5 at half time.

Tap penalties were proofing to be the undoing of both sides as Luke capitalised on a Collegiate rear guard which were slow to react. 21-5 after 37 minutes. Will H again slotting home the kick.

Luke was clearly in the mood and the 45 minute mark saw him score under the posts giving Will a routine kick to make it 28-5.

49 minutes gone and the spotlight now fell on Will Harrison for what can only be described as a sublime solo try. Alarm bells weren’t exactly ringing for the Collegiate defence when Will picked the ball up around the half way line. However, Will had other ideas as he showed an amazing combination of acceleration and footwork. The away ranks couldn’t even get within touching distance as Will danced his way through the entire opposition defence to score what was clearly the try of the match. The term ‘hot knife through butter’ has never seemed more appropriate. Will converted his own try to make it 35-5.

Manchester weren’t finished. on 54 minutes Noah finished off good work from Luke for his second try of the season. Will again converting to push the score onto 42-5.

Shortly afterwards, a good try for Harry Mellor on his return to the team took the score to 49-5 after Will took his tally of conversions to 7 out of 7.

Credit to Collegiate. Some teams may have been forgiven for throwing in the towel. Their stubborn performance was rewarded with a try late on to make the final score 49-10.

This was a great response to last week’s narrow defeat at Penrith. The irony of the scoreline is that there is more to come from this group of players. Credit to Manchester’s coaching team for managing to get these boys to gel despite the revolving door of availability. A more consistent turn out each week can only see this squad achieve great things!