A Close Call

The Boys in Blue v Blue, Gold ‘n’ White

The Mavs headed off to play Merseyside Police conscious that our opposition had been relegated the previous season but conscious that recent results had showed they still possessed potent strike force having beaten strong opposition in previous weeks. The majority of the team arrived at the Aigburth home of The Police in plenty of time. Pat and his Motley crew had decided to call in at Collegiate and decided to get changed and immerse themselves with all the pre-Match activities of Mossley Hill v Collegiate. After about ten minutes and a corrective phone call from the Gaffer the Motley Crew rather sheepishly gathered their possessions and headed off down the road to the correct venue.
The Gaffer once again had the benefit of a strong squad with our new players developing well and some old faces maintaining the squad stability. Forget about Brexit, The Royals and the crisis in The Middle East the very rare sight of Graham (Judith Chalmers) Keen making himself available for the second week in succession was the weeks major news.
We welcomed Tom Campbell into the squad this week on his return from Injury, albeit temporarily.
Merpol were out early warming up in the afternoon sun and looked like a team that could cause some big problems to The Maverick defensive line. So it was with this in mind that the Gaffer gathered the forwards around him to rally the troops and to give the message of defence! defence! defence!.
The call went out and the call has heeded, the first 25 mins was an evenly matched affair with Merpol attacking and The Mavs soaking up the pressure with relative ease and returning with an attacking flair that led to the first try scored by Tom Campbell who took the outside line to score after 25 mins.
It was evident from all on the touchline that the simple approach would result in victory today for The. Mavs. Phase play was the game plan, build small and score big. Rugby 101. Or that’s what we thought. As the heat intensified the less fit Maverick pack started to falter and drop off the pace. On many occasions the pack were finding it difficult to keep up with play and found themselves at times in the back line facing the Merpol backs. This led to inevitable mis match and the follow up tries to The Police team.
The final result of 19-17 in favour of The Mavs shows how close a game it was, however the management team were left frustrated by the amount of missed opportunities The Mavs left behind. A much improved performance will be required if we are to compete against Wirral, Birkenhead Park and Sefton. Fortunately I doubt we will experience the warm conditions that were present which, together with a very heavy pitch, clearly sapped the strength of all on the pitch
Noticeable mentions this week must go to Liam Fenners scoring a great wingers try on his debut, selling a dummy, cutting inside the opposition drift defence to score close to the post as the winning try the significance was decidedly obvious. Another mention for Nev Pickard who stepped up to play 9 in the absence of a recognised scrum half, also Captain fantastic who lead from the front and eventually stood in at 9 to allow nev to revert to his more favoured position at openside .
Finally a welcome to Garith our South African Canadian import who was recruited by The aforementioned management team at the local pub during post match drinks I’m certain he will make a valued addition to the squad and hopefully become a regular member of the team. Huge thanks to both johns who played a massive roll and in particular John Kenny who got over the whitewash for The Mavericks second try of the day.
As always the man of the match is saved until last. This was a tough one, the team played well as a unit which in turn led to some great individual tries but contrary to all my better beliefs I have decided to break the habit of a lifetime and award the man of the match to the skipper (don’t worry it’ll probably never happen again) but in this instance well deserved. An excellent leader and someone willing to make the changes for the good of the team. Set two tries up for both Tom as Liam and defended solidly throughout the whole 80 mins. Sometimes it makes a leader to lead and make the right calls and on this occasion Andy Smith earned the accolades.
Second place in the table and Onwards and upwards.

Semel a Mavericus Semper a Mavericus

The Gaffer