Marvellous Manchester bash Bradford in Cup

Manchester Men’s Rugby League 1st team dispatched Bradford 1sts with a ruthless and belligerent display at the Armitage last Wednesday. The current champions of the Northern Rugby League Shield underlined their credentials as one of the favourites to go all the way this year by showing that size does not always matter. With a reputation of fielding 13 “Hagrids” in every game, Bradford did not disappoint and produced a side that greatly outsized the Manchester team in almost every position. Having concentrated on an expansive and pacey game-plan during the week, Coach Neil Blackburn unleashed a fired up team who were intent on making the Bradford team realise the deficiency of being too big. With little sunshine and wind, conditions were perfect for rugby and suited the home side.
The first 10 minutes actually saw the expansive strategy being thrown out of the window as the forwards, led by Chris Bower, smashed unscrupulously into the Bradford defence and made good ground with low risk rugby. In defence, the Bradford team showed a depraved level of non-creativity and to their surprise, found themselves going backwards in the tackle as Manchester’s defensive line rushed up and broke them down with some massive hits. With the opening credits going to Manchester, Bradford found a piece of luck off a Manchester kick and scored a try from deep within their own half.
Without panicking, Manchester found another gear and pulled Bradford around the pitch hither and thither, resulting in a very well earned try after 15 minutes. As the Bradford team tried to regroup, Manchester kept the relentless pace and power levels up and continued to pump away at the Bradford defensive line, scoring a further two tries on the half hour mark. Bradford tried in vain to gain the upper hand but fitness levels held them back and by half time, they had been reduced to gasping elephants in the dry season whilst Manchester scored another try which threatened a rout.
What was most pronounced during the first half was the superior skills in the backs between the two teams. Manchester’s handling and ability to throw the ball out wide started to make the difference as Bradford struggled to stretch the Mancunian defence. This created very little gaps for Bradford to run at and allowed Manchester to flood the defence and have at least two people to every tackle. With Bradford going backwards at the breakdown, Manchester found themselves going forward in defence. With half time looming, Manchester remained camped in the Bradford half and gave them very little scope to escape.
After a quick refreshment, Bradford came out fired up after the second half and managed to gain a foothold on the game by taking advantage of a poor 20 minute spell from Manchester. With ball going to ground and passes being incomplete, the home side conceded two tries to bring them within touching distance of the lead. Chris Bates managed to regain parity for Manchester by scoring his second and third try and celebrated by performing his own version of the swan dive- a “rhino leap”. Realising the game was very much for the losing, Manchester’s backs picked up the pace again and showed some real skill by offloading out of the tackle and making threatening half breaks to keep the go forward momentum.
Bradford, to their credit, did well to contain a Manchester side who were desperate to score more tries and only some very fine defending and a few studs kept Manchester at bay. With time running out for Bradford, Manchester continued to control the game and maintained their high energy levels to ensure that they would progress through to the next round of the cup.
Coach Neil Blackburn said after the game, “This is our cup with our name on it and we dominated a big Bradford side at their own physical game. The forwards were magnificent and when it came to skill levels, there was only going to be one team that would win. Having said that we need to keep raising our performances and work harder in training. Against a fitter side our poor twenty minutes could have cost us the game so we need to improve our concentration and maintain a high level of discipline, no matter what the score is.”
Captain Chris Bower said, “I’m really pleased for the boys. We were pretty apprehensive before this game because we knew we were up against a very physical team who have won some huge games this season. The forwards fronted up and did better than I expected in contact considering we were so much smaller. We’ve got a few injuries from this game but it was to be expected in a clash like this.”
Manchester Men’s Rugby League Club would like to thank Walkabout for their continued support of the club.