After a disappointing 21-37 defeat against likely relegation battlers Hereford RFC last weekend, there was an atmosphere of apprehension throughout the Club as the 1st Team looked ahead to facing fully-amateur Manchester RFC - a team that has not won for almost three seasons and is now on a rough journey tumbling back down the leagues from the heady heights of professionalism in the second tier of English rugby writes Luke Truslove.  Could it be possible that Broadstreet would be the team that Manchester broke their high profile duck against?  The small crowd that turned out for the match certainly gave the impression of a club that had metaphorical hands clasped firmly over its eyes ..... just in case!

Issues were compounded when influential Back Row Christopher ‘Ziggy’ Zutic suffered an injury in the warm-up a mere ten minutes before kick-off.  With both the 2nds and the 3rds not playing at the Ivor Preece Field, a quick eye was passed over the 4th team who were playing against Stoke Old Boys RFC 2nds.  However, with the Broadstreet Badgers being top of Warwickshire 5 and the Broadstreet 1st Team struggling at the bottom of National League 3 Midlands, it was decided that it would be best to leave them at full strength, rather than dent their title aspirations. This meant that scrum-half Connor McFeeley had to interupt his regular routine of Saturday afternoon Cartoons to make his 1st Team debut instead.

Manchester came out firing, putting early pressure on the Broadstreet try line in the opening five minutes in which Broadstreet Wing Pete Bicknell had to make two hard-hitting try-saving tackles to stop certain tries.  This passage of play was cut short however, when Scrum Half Nick Thatcher disrupted an attacking scrum and Flanker Will Parkes was the first onto the ball, hacking it through deep into the Manchester half where he was first to re-gather it near the touchline.  Broadstreet quickly cleared out the ruck and the ball was shipped back into the mid-field where retreating Manchester players gave away a soft penalty directly in front of the sticks which Fly Half Scott Harman had no trouble dispatching for the first points of the match.  3-0

With 10 minutes of the game played, Manchester were back in Broadstreet territory and playing well enough to question their current dismal playing record.  Unfortunately any momentum they were gaining was cut short by the (somewhat harsh) sin-binning of their Number 8 Ollie Mackuley and the missing of a complete sitter of a penalty in front of the posts from their Fly Half Rich McCartney.  Broadstreet were first to cross the line after a box kick from Nick Thatcher was chased down by part-troll Flanker Ady Nightingale who tackled and jackalled the ball off the covering Full Back quickly enough for Broadstreet to make severe headway deep in to the Manchester 22.  A couple of phases of crash ball towards the Manchester line resulted in a try for Lock Tom Greevy.  Scott Harman captured the extras.  10-0

On 24 minutes, a Manchester Backs' move found space through the centre channel and Manchester thought they had scored their first.  However, this was brought back for a marginal forward pass and Scott Harman added insult to injury by jacking up the Broadstreet total by three points a couple of minutes later.  13-0

Tackle of the match undoubtedly goes to Scrum Half/Fly Half/Centre/Wing Jordan Simpson who, when faced with the oncoming gallop of Manchester Number 8 Mackuley off the back of a scrum, seemingly quite easily laid him horizontal in the air and four foot above the ground.  With a couple of minutes of the half left, and after a period of sustained pressure in the Manchester half, Scrum Half Nick Thatcher latched on to a pass from Number 8 Nick Pratt who had picked up from the base of a five metre scrum, sniping through two tacklers to grab his fourth try of the season.  However, with probably his easiest kick of the match Scott Harman managed to fluff the conversion.  18-0.

HT 18-0.

Half time saw a significant substitution with Ben Dawes coming on for Matt Dearden at Tighthead.  After being benched two weeks running, Dawesy pounded onto the field like a giant Emperor Penguin on steroids .... Dawesy was here for business! 

Ten minutes into the second half a simple pop from the No. 8 at the base of the scrum directly to Ross Bayston at Inside Centre saw him crash through the initial tackler on the forty metre line and accelerate through on to the covering Full Back.  Bayston was brought down just short of the five metre line. but managed to supply the offload to Will Parkes who capped his best game in a Broadstreet shirt with his first try for the club underneath the posts.  Scott Harman slotted the conversion.  25-0.

After some big carries by Dawesy in the opening twenty minutes of the half, he started the final quarter of the match with a trademark try from five metres out after collecting a pass off a ruck.  The big man pretty much ran into contact in the worst upright body position, exactly how they tell you not to in schoolboy rugby, however despite the three or four tacklers hanging off his frame, he still managed to use his mong-strong strength to throw them off and touch down over the line and under the posts.  With just ten minutes to go Tom Greevy capped his fine performance with a second try, both of which were converted by Scott Harman.  39-0.

On 74 minutes and winning the game 39-0 Captain Nick Thatcher made an extremely astute tactical decision and opted for the posts after Broadstreet earned a penalty just outside the Manchester 22 metre line, which Scott Harman easily took care of.  To round off the match on 80 minutes Ben ‘I am a Hero’ Dawes collected a well deserved second try after delivering his best performance for Broadstreet this season and let the Broadstreet faithful know that the win was NEVER IN DOUBT!!!

FT 47-0.

MotM -  Faced with the potential threat of being the first team to lose to Manchester in a very long time and seeing our club becoming National Newspaper fodder, the old faithful ... players like Tom Greevy, Nick Thatcher and Ben Dawes were all first into the breach to ensure the win.  However MotM has to go to Jordan Simpson who once more played out of position and delivered a number of bone crunching tackles time after time.

DotD - On 79 minutes and after one of the most limp wristed ‘fights’ to take place on a Broadstreet pitch ever, centre Ross Bayston earns DotD for squaring up to a Manchester player in front of the Broadstreet stand, shouting "C’mon then!" whilst back-pedalling at a rate of knots into the relative safety of his own half.  Even the decent try assist that set up the third try doesn’t make up for that!