In a season in which they have swept all before them Capenhurst’s first team knew they were in for a real contest right from the first minute of this game, as Adam Bramhall ran the ball back at them, weaving his way 70 metres up the pitch, leaving tacklers in his wake. Pretty much immediately afterwards Ollie Whorton hit a short ball off the forever young Chris Wells to punch a hole straight through the middle of Cape’s defence.

It was a shame Saints did not score off the back of such penetration because Capenhurst worked their way back into the game and were able to stretch out to an 8 – 3 lead, which got to 20 – 6 just before half time. Cape’s dominance at the set piece was the only difference between the two teams: hardly surprising given that they have been playing together all season and that, today, they were playing against a pack in which many players were new to each other.

That said, nice hands from Dom Neville put Chris L in for a try in the corner to bring the score back to 20 – 13 at half time. Saints had an air of confidence about them at the half time break and translated that into a good score for Adam Bramhall, after a bit of juggling in the mid field from Dom Neville.

Capenhurst gathered themselves admirably to get over the line again to restore a gap in the score. However, they were then put under enormous pressure as Benno Perez went in under the posts off another break from Adam. It was now 27 – 25 to Capenhurst and all Saints needed was a little more quality ball and surely the game would be theirs.

Not to be unfortunately. Benno came within a whisker of crossing the line late on and the referee stopped play to break up a fracas just as Sam Bramhall was racing to the line with no tacklers in sight. Such is rugby.

There was a lot to admire about Saints’ attacking play today (with Chris L making good yards, Adam Bramhall even more, and Dom Neville putting people away) but the standout performance came in defence. Alex Williams put in several of his copybook trademark tackles around the break down, with Connor Clayton and Benno also standing firm. But maybe it was Simon Mason that put in the biggest hits of all. (Never try bullying an Irish international).

Adam Bramhall had a great running game and deserves huge praise, as does Jon Oates for pulling today’s squad together with so many players away on tour – and Dan M’s service at 9 was something to behold. However, in his first real game stepping up to the 2s, the young Dylan O grabbed the man of the match award by showing the out-and-out instinct of a fine back row player to get on the ball, to slow things down and to win some much needed turnovers. Great stuff!