Cheshire/Lancashire South
Division One
Manchester 15 v 14 Douglas
Old Mutual Douglas had the points lead trimmed at the top of the table by their Cheadle hosts, but garnered a losing bonus point on the road that may yet prove handy in the latter Division One stages, as Manchester fell to fifth without the try-scoring bonus point. Douglas missed two penalty chances to go ahead early on, but after 20 minutes Douglas scrum-half Shaun Wyllie disrupted Manchester ball around the fringes and put boot to ball, Douglas centre Sam Randle turned up the wick to hack ahead, and won the race to the touchdown for 7-0 after Luke Hyland’s extras. The re-jigged Douglas pack with Liam Kirkpatrick and Ralph Clarke in the boiler-house kept things bubbling along, and Conor Stephens put in another defensive midfield master class. Douglas substitutions saw Paul Leivers replacing the injured Clarke, and Niall Killey swopped with Craig McGee, after Manchester mauled Tom Power successfully to the line for 5-7 at half time. Douglas fullback Sam Reid raced over after 50 minutes for an easy Hyland conversion and 5-14, but Manchester came back with a charging Gareth Bridgman score at 12-14 with 10 minutes to play. A yellow card for Kirkpatrick took the wind from the visitors sails and Manchester’s Richard McCartney slotted over a 70th minute penalty for 15-14.
Yes the boys will be disappointed, but heading the table with one fixture remaining before Christmas is impressive. If anything can be taken away from New Brighton on Saturday 17th, then Douglas could still go in to the New Year at the top and travel to Sefton on the 7th January with home matches in view from 14th.
