Della 16 - Saints 13

This was a day that will last long in the memories of the Anselmian players and supporters who made the journey to Lancaster road, Salford. Unfortunately, it won’t be the rugby that’s remembered.

The ground was wet and the grass long, not the most ideal conditions for running rugby so it was no surprise when the early exchanges consisted of forward carries, scrums and kicks for position. Saints enjoyed the better of the early exchanges with some excellent kicking from standoff McGovern.

On the 10th minute early Saints pressure earned them a penalty on the De la Salle 25 metre line. McGovern’s kick was very high over the left-hand post and produced a split decision with the Saints linesman standing on the left post awarding the kick and the De la Salle linesman and crowd declaring it wide. The referee declared it wide as well.

The undercurrent of vitriol that had simmered along during the early stages now came to the surface and with the De La Salle supporters calling for blood it was no surprise when on the 12th minute an innocuous tackle resulted in a scuffle that saw one from each side yellow carded. A few minutes later La Salle were awarded a penalty which they kicked to give them a 3 – 0 lead.

Unfortunately, there was little flowing rugby to comment on with breakdowns and penalties dominating the game. On the 25th minute with the ball making a rare journey across the backs, Saints looked to be in but Nolan with the line beckoning was unable to hold on to the final ball.

On 31 minutes Saints lost centre Sadler to injury but this was quickly followed by Saints only try of the match. From a scrum, over on the right about 10 metres from the La Salle try line the ball was moved in field for Otutaha to crash through 3 tackles to go over under the posts and the conversion made the score 3 – 7 at half time.

The second half showed no improvement in rugby and the main point of interest was the strange custom of the La Salle supporters to shout” forward” every time a Saints player passed the ball. The fact that they kept it up for 40 mins only was truly impressive.

A penalty kick on the 49th minute saw La Salle move within a point. On the 55th minute La Salle missed a penalty kick that would have seen them take the lead. On the 63rd minute Saints were awarded a penalty just inside the La Salle half which the referee advanced a further 10 metres for La Salle talking out of turn. (If this rule had been applied to some of the La Salle supporters they would have been watching the game from Rochdale). McGovern kicked it to make the score 6 – 10.

On the 66th and 68th minute La Salle missed further penalties. On the 70th minute, yes, you guessed it, a penalty to La Salle saw them kick to touch in the Saints 22 and from the lineout La Salle forced the ball over in the corner and the conversion made it 13 – 10.
By now this was a game that the visiting supporters just wanted over and even the fact that on the 76h Minute McGovern kicked a penalty to make the score 13 – 13 aroused little enthusiasm. In similar fashion to our loss against Glossop two years ago it was no surprise when from the restart La Salle were awarded a penalty which they kicked to make the final score 16 – 13.

Best part of the day. Driving away at the end!