Mavs go Baa Baa’s

This weeks trip to Sefton brought the best performance The Gaffer has witnessed all season, and I’ve seen a fair few.
The team this week was consistent with very few changes from Tuesday night and a great mix of abilities from debutants to the highly experienced. One of our nomadic friends from Wallasey turned up and put in a massive shift. The Mavs arrived at Sefton on an overcast, damp Saturday afternoon, a soggy, heavy pitch beaconed and this was not a good omen. Traditionally the Mavs perform at their best when they can run, and a heavy pitch isn’t conducive to that style.
Despite this a strong team was available with a solid front 5 in the pack with the massive second row presence of Tom and Josh lending their size and pace to the overall 8. The rapid back row of spot, Liam Mcgowan and a welcome return of Lewis Keen starting his first game at 6 (and what a game it was.).
The backs line up with some impressive combinations. Half backs of Neil and VDK provided the opportunity to getting the line moving rapidly with the excellent strong running centre partnership of Andy Smith and Jack Hancock punching holes in the middle of the park. The back three consisting of the ‘evergreen’ Ed Byrne, Del Alderson and Liam Fenners bringing the finishing touches to the starting line up. The bench this week consisted of our latest debutant of Fethi who looks like a promising winger, just need to get those hands sorted, Jake as a replacement front row option and Dan, joining us from Wallasey, who, as always, plays an immense part whenever he gets the ball in hand.
The game started at a frenetic pace and Sefton attacked with their large pack causing The Mavs to go into defensive mode. This had a dramatic effect on the Sefton team as they kept hitting wall after wall of massive Mav tackles. Ed and Pat stealing great ball with some effective counter rucking. You could physically see the Sefton pack wilting as their attack failed. As the half continued you could see the tide turn in favour of the Mavs.
The final score of 31-17 in favour of The Mavericks showed exactly what this team is capable of when it ‘clicks’.
The first try was a continuance if last weeks fantastic performance by Jack Hancock who sped through the Sefton defence to score close to the posts. Making it played two scored four for The Mavs. The second try of the afternoon was a a result of a sweeping back move bringing Del Alderson into the line at speed to score in the corner. The third a fabulous individual length of the pitch effort by Liam Mcgowan (playing on the wing following injury to Ed Byrne) down the blind side beating several floundering Sefton defenders in the process to score under the posts. Fourth try has been a long time coming for the highly impressive Tom Hutchinson who smashed over from close range to secure his debut try for The Mavs, a very welcome sight. Final try was to our very own English / South African / Canadian import VDK whose persistence paid off hounding down the Sefton defence and on Neil Brookes’ shoulder to dot down.
Sefton can back with two tries of their own. Their first was a result of determined of the shoulder running together with a missed knock on to sit down half way through the second half. Their second followed a temporary suspension of play (or that’s what it seemed like) whilst Andy Smith went to a local restaurant in order to get a silver platter, together with all the silver service trimmings so he could present the onrushing Sefton backs with a gilt edged ‘sitter’ right under our posts. Captain Fantastic was creative during the game with a particular unique interpretation of the 22 drop out. A tap free kick it is not, a drop kick or grubber kick it most certainly is, having carried out the faux pas he then went on to compound the matters by trying to argue his was out of it ......... take the shame and move on Skip.
The game had other tremendous individual performances from Tom, Jack, Liam and Neil in fact a comment after the game summed up the day. Every single player who took to the field played the best rugby of their season so far. There were times watching the interplay between forward and backs with forward running in 9 and 10 that was practically Baa baa esque In it style and speed. A pleasure to watch. Despite the tries in the main going to the backs today, it was generally felt that this was a forward led victory with immense strength being shown by Eddie Brown, Mike Potter and Pat Rowe, the 8 pushing the Sefton 8 back on every occasion I can think of and its only down to the very good nine that we did not win more against the head. The strong running of Lewis Keen and Tom Hutchinson was almost impossible to stop and their were some incredible hands from Spot Liam and Dan kinking seamlessly with Neil Brookes and the wider backs. Forwards kept the momentum going and the backs hassled and tackles like demons to get another great Maverick win chalked up.
Special mention must go this week to Ed Byrne a constant part of the Maverick set up, a true Maverick and a great player who sadly sustained a broken leg early on on the game, but not wishing to be a drama queen (unlike the gaffa) got up and limped back to the club house. We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back in a Mav shirt early in the new year. A welcome to our new player Fethi who had a promising start and with some increased catching practice will be a welcome addition to the Maverick family.
This weeks man of the match, once again caused some massive headaches as it was a near impossible task, every single player played a part but as is tradition it needed to go to someone. So Liam Mcgowan take a bow. Great performance both in the back row and on the wing, scored a sensational individual try, defended like a dream train with so me great head on tackles and was a constant threat in attack. Well done mate.
Home next week against a strong Linley team but if we play anywhere near to what we did this week and we should fear no one.

Semel a Mavericus, Semper a Mavericus.

The Gaffer