Della entertained promotion hopefuls New Brighton in their final home league match of the season and what a cracker it turned out to be. Both teams need congratulating after putting on a display of 100% committed rugby. Both defenses were on top and try opportunities were at a premium. New Brighton have had a great season vying for top spot with TMV all season, they started the day in 2nd place needing two wins in their last 2 games to secure promotion, what didn’t help their cause were comments on social media saying they were going to get a full 5 points for a bonus win. Those comments came back to haunt them after being nilled for the first time this season. Dellas defence was absolutely outstanding to a man, every player came up with a big hit, timely turnover, covering tackle, or big play. Front rowers McCormick, Salisbury and Griffkin were solid in the scrum and held firm against a visibly bigger Pack, the old stager Parrott put in a good shift and managed to go forward at one stage. Back rowers Berry, Watson and Worthington were exceptional both in defence and going forward . Bottomly and Lee McCormick were rock solid in the back line stopping everything that came there way and forcing timely turnovers. Rainford put in a couple of hits that meant his wing was a place to avoid for the opposition. Sean Watson proved adequate at full back with some telling kicks. Ben Riley and Ben Wheeler were superb as an half back pairing and proved solid in defence too. Salle probed away at the visitors line only to be repelled by some stubborn defence it took a clever kick through by Wheeler to break the New Brighton line superbly gathered by Coach Lee McCormick for the games only try excellently converted by Wheeler 7-0. Brighton had a spell on Salles line but they kept running into brick walls and were getting increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress. An half time score of 7-0 shows how much defences were on top. The second half was much like the first with both sides having limited scoring opportunities. As the game went on the visitors were throwing everything at Della but it only strengthen the home teams resolve.
To Beat a team to nil in Rugby is a great achievement but to nil a team going for promotion and desperate for points is outstanding. Salle had a spell in the latter stages of the game where they went close a couple of times and had a penalty attempt to take them to 10-0 and deny the visitors a losing bonus point but alas the kick was just wide. The game finished as Brighton attempted one last time to breach the home sides defences but once again were beaten into submission. And so it finished 7-0 to Della and thoughts of a 5 point bonus win were well and truly a distant dream. The man in the middle let as much go as he could and managed a game which had the potential to boil over very well. Both he and assessor were full of praise for Dellas defence and hospitality. Its been frustrating this season as we have beaten the top teams in the league and been beaten by the bottom two teams also. Weve had points deducted by failing to raise teams on two occasions. We have one last league game against Tyldesley where we must win and hope other results go our way to secure survival. I’m sure Tyldesley aren’t looking forward to that knowing we are coming and knowing we have to win. My man of the match was impossible to pick yesterday instead im going for a cop out and saying all the team were magnificent but the outstanding players were Liam Watson, Ryan Worthington and Paul Berry
So lets finish on a high by winning the last game against Tyldesley and set ourselves up for a good day at the Final in May.