Mavericks 7 - The Port 40

So another Saturday for the Mavs, and this week it was the turn of Ellesmere Port to attend our temporary home at the Vauxhall Sport Ground.
Things seemed to be going well in the changing rooms, especially after the previous weeks game against Prenton, until some last minute withdrawals.
So after entering the field Ellesmere Port who kindly provided a good referee to ensure the game took place they followed up by kindly offering us Ryan, who played for us again. Again Ryan put in another great shift. Also the 2nd's offered us Ben Thomas so we now had a full 15.
The game was very tight for 15 minutes with the Mavs managing the game well. Billy was finding some space and making good breaks. Unfortunately for the Mavs this didn't lead to points, and Ellesmere Port found their big runners in the midfield and burst through the line to score.
This became a repeated pattern of play for the first half, where their big runners would find open field to run and lunch holes. Despite a number of fantastic last ditch tackles, namely by Billy, Port still powered through.
Andy gathered the troops with Spot to go over where we needed to work on and in true Mavs spirit we did. The 2nd half became a much tighter affair, the Mavs were putting pressure on Ellesmere Port and were securing ball from set pieces. Ed Byrne launching the ball in and Spot delivering to Neil in split second timing became a feature of the lineouts. This gave Andy Thompson time and space to start to pull strings. The Mavs started to cut their own lines, Gordon making a dart through for an ankle tap cutting him down. The back 3 of Ben, Billy and Si getting the ball in space to run and making ground. Andy Smith providing some telling passes to the 3 of them. Things were going well but alas the final killer pass or step was eluding the Mavs. Ellesmere Port were more clinical and their final passes would tend to stick to hands.
All was not lost though for the Mavs, some excellent turn over play from the forwards led to the Mavs midfield showing their stuff. Gordon offered to the option to Andy T who found a hole to dart through, this time the final pass stuck for the Mavs and Andy Smith did what he did best and crashed over the line for the score.
Despite the result, 40-7 loss, it was a dogged performance from the Mavs. A special mention should go to Christian McIvor, who turned up in the 2nd half and offered to come on. He made an instant impact, switching to number 7 where he cut the opposition 10 in his path and made some good breaks. As mentioned before a big thank you should go to Ryan from Ellesmere Port and Ben from the 2nds who helped to make it 15 on 15. Both put in great performance and we hope to see Ben again for the Mavs as he put in a great shift. The forwards worked well to disrupt their ball and made some important turnovers. But man of the match should go to Billy, his line breaks, last ditch tackles and general composure on the ball earned him the title this week.

In the words of Ed Byrne, "rugby was the winner at the end of the day." It sure was Ed as Spot rightly pointed out before kick off, it is the only 80 minutes some people have over the week for them and we should make the most of it.

Onwards and upwards gents, a potential friendly next week against Mold and then back to league action against Moseley Hill.