Cheshire Festival

Cheshire Festival

Saints travelled to Sandbach for the annual Cheshire Festival more in hope than expectation and upon seeing the group into which they had been drawn their expectations sunk even lower. The group was Lymm, Altrincham Kersal, Macclesfield and Bowdon, all good teams.

The squad’s task was made even more difficult following the coach’s decision to enter 2 teams. This left the resources very thin, especially as Charlie C was carrying an injury.

The results were:
Lymm 0 – 3 (L)
Altrincham Kersal 0 – 2 (L)
Macclesfield 5 – 3 (W)
Bowdon 0 – 2 (L)
Stockport 2 – 3 (L)

The results do not reflect the hard work, resilience and excellent play that every member of the squad put in during a very hard day’s rugby.

In the Lymm game the boys defended as though their lives depended upon it and can be considered unfortunate that the score did not reflect their effort.

In the second game Altrincham dominated and Anselmians defended well and didn’t take their chances.

The third match finally showed what Saints could do in attack with Josh (3 tries) and Ewan (2 tries) always to the fore. There were also a couple of great breaks by Thomas. This game also provided the “champagne moment” for Joe’s hit on a Macclesfield attacker – he certainly stayed hit.

By this time the wafer thin squad of 11 was rapidly beginning to tire and struggled to produce their best against Bowdon, although there were some great sniping runs by Owen and Charlie M and some excellent scavenging by Liam.

The results meant Anselmians went through to the Plate and there after an extended break we met a strong and motivated Stockport team. Saints started badly despite the efforts of Matthew and Ieuan in the forwards – Matthew had bravely soldiered on with a sore ankle for most of the afternoon – and were 2 – 0 down at half time. There was a marked improvement in the second with Jack and Ewan breaking forward at all opportunities. Josh scored 2 super tries but in the end it was all to no avail and Saints crashed out.

The day was a success and all the boys will have learnt from their experiences. I must thank them for all the effort they’ve put in this year and everyone of them has been a pleasure to coach. They have all improved and should be proud of their performances across the season.

Anselmians Wasps squad: - Ewan, Jack, Liam, Owen, Charlie C, Charlie M, Joe, Thomas, Ieuan, Josh and Matthew.

We decided to field a development team at this year’s under 10s Cheshire festival, our team was Anselmians Hornets. This festival provided much needed experience for this squad and will have given them all a taste of what is in front of them.
We played some very promising rugby notably with straight running lines from Sam B and Connor, but we had a tendency to over commit at the ruck and maul leaving wide gaps outside for the more experienced teams to exploit (plenty for us to work on next season). This development team showed real determination and team spirit which is a joy to see from a coach’s perspective especially against more experienced and physically stronger opposition.
Well done to all the boys for playing the game with a smile on their faces and for making us all proud.
A special mention must go to Northwich/ Knutsford who kindly lent us 3 players during the day to help us be able to use rolling subs. So thank you to Ash, Mathew and James. Also well done to Sandbach for organising a great event that was well organised.

Results
Duckinfield 4 – 2 (L)
Winnington Park 1 – 1 (D)
Sandbach 5 – 1 (L)
Macclesfield 6 – 3 (L)
Knutsford / Northwich 6 – 2 (L)

Squad
Connor
Ben
Sam (B)
Will
Sam
Lewis
Michael
Ash
Mathew
James