Manor travelled to Old Priorians this week, a ground where they hadn’t won at since 2015, with a much changed side from previous weeks. 13 forwards who had played first team rugby this season were unavailable for various reason including 3 who had been picked to play for Cyprus. Manor were able to give Jamie Hulse and Jimmy Baber their first team debuts and welcomed back Brad Burrell and Barney Newbury who had both played little or no rugby for the past 6 weeks.

Manor kicked off the match on a heavy pitch with drizzle falling and light already fading. It was apparent that even with a much changed pack, Manor were more than holding their own in the loose and the scrum, but were finding lineout possession hard without a recognised hooker.
Even though Manor were in control of most aspects of play but were let down by some poor decision making and handling in deteriorating conditions and weren’t help by the loss to injury of stand in hooker Ryan Lee who was replaced by Newbury. The hosts were defending well and soaked up the pressure put on them by Manor but offered little in the way of an attacking threat.

Despite all their possession it took Manor 20 minutes before they recorded their first points of the game, after another period of pressure and going through the phases Manor eventually worked the ball out to Jamie Millais who went over out wide. Cameron Dutch couldn’t add the extra points from the conversion but Manor had taken a deserved 0 – 5 lead.

The game continued to be an error ridden affair, although Priorians were working their way back into the contest and had more possession inside Manors half. They were helped when the ref somewhat harshly sent the returning Ben Bolton-Smith to the sin bin for an offence at the breakdown, it was the first penalty he had given away and no team warning had been given. Priorians turned down the shot at goal and went for an attacking lineout. They won their thrown in but couldn’t break through Manors defences and another knock on gave possession back to Manor and they were able to see out the rest of the half without too much trouble.

Priorians kicked off the second half and put Manor under some early pressure but handling let them down allowing Manor to move back up field and after winning a couple of penalties found themselves with an attacking scrum 8 meters from Priorians line. Manor secured the ball allowing Billy Morris to power off the base of the scrum, he was proving difficult to bring down but when he was eventually stopped the ball was knocked on and possession had been handed back to the hosts.

The game continued with both sides struggling for continuity, but as in the first half some poor decision making by Manor put themselves under unnecessary pressure. After giving away a penalty at a lineout Manor found themselves defending an attacking lineout 8 meters from their line. Priorians secured the thrown in and set up a maul before breaking off the back and going over the line for their first points of the day and with the conversion successful they took a 7 – 5 lead after 25 minutes.

Manor now retained possession well and used their forwards to good affect with Baber, Burrell and Newbury all having powerful runs, with the ball close to Priorians line Paddy Sheehy tried his luck but was brought down 5 meters short. Priorians initially turned the ball over and set it up but poor control by them saw the ball knocked backwards over the try line. Elliot Brown was alert to what was happening and reacted the quickest rushing over the line and diving on the ball reaching it just before the covering defence. The ref awarded the try and with Dutch added the conversion Manor had retaken the lead 7 – 12 with 10 minutes left to play.

The last 10 minutes belonged to Priorians as they strove to find the winning score. With the light almost gone, Priorians made it difficult for Manor to get outside of their 22, and when they did it was by way of clearing kicks which just handed possession back to the hosts.
With time almost up Priorians were now camped inside Manors 22 with the visitors being penalised a number of times. The hosts choose to attack through their lineout and after winning possession and a couple forward drives the ball was moved along the line to their hard running centre who went over the line and looked to have scored, but after the pile of bodies parted on the floor the ref deemed that the ball was held up and awarded a 5 meter scrum.

At the scrum Manor were penalised for being offside but defended well as the ref played advantage allowing Priorians to attack Manors line but they were unable to break through so the ref came back for the penalty. Again a scrum was taken and again Manor gave away a penalty but their defences held up to the onslaught. With another scrum taken Manor managed not to fall foul of the referees whistle and with the last play of the match Priorians again pounded Manors line but Manor were determined not to have their line breached and as they put in the big hits they kept their opponents at bay eventually forcing a knock on and thus winning the game.

It was a poor game by both teams played on a very heavy pitch with the light almost gone by the end, but as they say a win is a win and after Manors poor run of results any victory was welcomed. Priorians will feel that they had done enough to win the game and halt their own poor run, but it wasn’t to be. For their next game Manor visit Shelford who, after a poor start to the season have recorded back to back victories with big winning margins. Manor will have to improve all aspects of this weeks performance to come away with a positive result in two weeks time.