Glossop 3rd… 71 – North Manchester 2nd… 5
Saturday 1st December
Glossop have been a formidable side this campaign currently challenging for the top spot in the table and prior to this game only having conceded two tries at home in the league all season. With some bad results away at North Manchester in previous seasons and without top try scorer Marshall available Glossop psyched themselves up for a tight game. It didn’t quite work out that way. North Manchester had bought a young team that although not tall seemed bulky and capable of tackling hard. Their main weakness however was pace and dealing with it. Certain partnerships have been developing well across the Glossop thirds of late with Deacon and Smith at second row and Sash and Littlewood alternating the number eight spot powerfully and well. Perhaps on Saturday we saw the start of another great partnership between stand off Jim Parker and centres Robinson and Snape. The shear pace and confidence in Parker’s running undid the Manchester defensive line time after time and great support play by Robinson meant there was always someone on his shoulder to pass to and when the ball went out to him Manchester struggled with Snape’s shear size, speed and power. In the rare occasions Glossop needed to defend their line Parker’s positional kicks often against the blustery wind were also spot on, as were Alderdyce’s from scrum half.
The game began relatively evenly and it took a while for Glossop to get a hold on the game. A lot of the side’s strength this season has come from the packs ability to disrupt the oppositions scrum and North Manchester weren’t going to allow them to do this easily. Early on Glossop mainly kept ball in hand as the wind was against them and the surface slippery so the forwards began rucking and mauling well and after about fifteen minutes they were rewarded for their efforts with Littlewood driving off the maul and over the line for the first try of the game. Snape took up kicking duties for this game but the strength of the wind put his kick wide. After this the game opened up a little more for Glossop and with a try on the board and their confidence up the ball was shifted out to the backs who had proved their running was causing North Manchester problems. Wave after wave of Glossop pressure rained down on North Manchester and only Glossop’s handling stopped a number of tries being scored. The inexperience of the young visitors began to show however and when serious pressure was put on them they often panicked, in one case leading to winger Carrick almost scoring by diving for a ball loosely kicked forward but he was just out paced by the Manchester fullback. In the end though the defence cracked and Parker scored once and Snape twice from powerful runs through the Manchester backs. With the last two conversions also being missed Robinson took over kicking duty and dutifully slotted the extra two points. Glossop must have taken their foot off the pedal after scoring a fourth time however as some incredibly slack tackling allowed North Manchester to pull a try back which angered team captain Kev Swift because as previously mentioned Glossop had only conceded two tries all season at home and to allow such a soft one over was infuriating. He demanded the team scored two more in retaliation and Glossop started doing just that with scrum half Alderdyce finding his way over the line to score once again this season with Robinson once again adding the conversion.
Despite being on top of the game Glossop didn’t quite manage two tries before the break but went in deservedly winning 29-5. After the break Glossop began to show the quality of their game that has firmly placed them in the top three in the table from pretty much the start of the season. During the half time team talk Swift said he wanted at least ten tries put past Manchester and Glossop answered the call soon after kick off with Snape securing his hat trick by scoring from another devastating run and fullback Howarth who had shown great pace throughout the game rewarded with a try also. Parker was running the show by this point and his runs, passing and kicks now with the wind were just too much for the tiring North Manchester side. He completed his performance with a second try after breaking two or three tackles, side stepping and dummying his way to the line. The only aspect of Manchester’s game that was still holding was the scrum, Glossop only winning a couple of the visitor’s put ins and their forwards were still tackling well. Wilson playing at flanker had a fantastic game and capped off a great performance with arguably the best try of the game. Picking up from the base of a ruck just outside the visitor’s twenty two he threw a dummy that confused the entire Manchester defensive line and gave him an easy run in to the line where he scored between the posts. Kev Swift was once again this season denied what seemed a perfectly good try from a rolling maul as the ref called it as held up. Other than a couple of kicks from penalties giving North Manchester lineout ball in the Glossop half they never really threatened the home teams try line in the second half and nearing the end of the game Glossop added two more tries. Marsden coming on the field added some more dynamism and it was a solid run from him that set up the ruck and maul which eventually led to Rob Smith touching down in the corner, narrowly avoiding touch. Wing Ben Thommason had vowed to score before he came off in this match and he didn’t disappoint, pin balling his way to the line bouncing off tackles and running passed the out stretched and tired arms of the North Manchester team to make it eleven tries in the game that was sure to make captain, Swift a happy man. Robinson certainly had his kicking boots on and kept up his immaculate display by converting all tries scored taking his tally for the game to sixteen points purely from conversions.
Glossop will hope a performance like this will keep them in high spirits and confident going into next week’s important cup game as they seem to have a firm grasp on league position for the time being.
Team Sheet
1.Swift 2.Gatsby 3.Tamps 4.Smith 5.Deacon 6.Littlewood 7.Wilson 8.Sash 9.Alderdyce 10.Parker 11.Thommason 12.Robinson 13.Snape 14.Carrick 15.Howarth 16.Thomas 17.Hughes 18.Marsden 19.Williams