Vale Of Lune Tournament (Manchester)

Manchester 5 v Rossendale 0

So this was our chance we were up against a side with a massive squad in excess of two teams with more coaching staff the the main England side but hey ho!

We had talked all week in training about playing in your face rugby and this is exactly what we did. They were a well drilled and organised side hitting the rucks at pace low and hard. There backs were well organised and really work hard all the time to make the overlap.

But what they did'nt allow for was the work rate and physical nature of our forwards. There poor scrum half will be having nightmares at George Allen constantly being on top of him sniping and snapping away at his heels and at half time it had been a very closely fought contest,

The Manchester coaches were starting to get worried, moaning away at their players, referee and anyone else who was near enough or could be bothered to listen.

So it was all to play for with our forwards all fronting up and giving it their all. Our backs were decisive in any play we could make and getting great line speed in defence.

But eventually a little bit of brilliance from one player made the difference to let Manchester in for the only score of the game.

I was personally a little bit down after this game we tried so hard and i even felt at one stage the game was there for the taking. We had one real good attacking position where we had made the overlap and if the ball had gone through all the hands someone would have walked in for a try.

But after a few minutes to reflect on things i actually realised what a massive game this was for our lads. If you asked any team in the country to go and play a three way tournament with Manchester and Preston or Southport i do not suppose their will be many who would fancy it. So we lost the first three games by the slenderist of margins one try a game would we have taking this a year ago ? Of course we would and that is why this tounament was so valuable for the whole team. It is a measure of the dedication that you have all put into training. I cannot wait for next season when we are playing sides like this every week because if we train well through the summer there will be some big name scalps for this team