Mavs v Wirral

Happy New Year to all our followers and to everyone who gets to read this tripe week after week.
Three weeks off and a return to Eastham for The Mavs with the welcome return of players after the Christmas break.
We welcomed Wirral to Eastham and the Gaffer was in buoyant mood with a strong showing and a squad of 22. After beating Wirral at the beginning of the season by 38 points to 7 it was an anticipated victory on the cards for a strong Maverick squad.
Little did we know that Tim Hodson and Richie Rich had resurrected the ‘All Stars’ for their return fixture and brought their strongest team of the season with them to Eastham Pavillion.
The pre-match four way tussle for pitch selection was eventually settled when Manchester couldn’t cope with playing in a bit of water and the delicate wallflowers decided their own brand of rugby would be best served playing on The Mavs pitch.
So, that settled, the men decided to get on with it and The Mavs got to ply their trade on the first team pitch. This minor victory was to be the only one today for the brave and resilient Mavericks.
The final score of 38-0 to Wirral was a fair reflection of the game Wirral brought their ‘A’ game with some strong tackling and some good running from their backs to score many tries out wide.
The Mavs defence was strong and despite the score did themselves no dishonour with their performance. The combative forward contest was one of 50/50 split until it came to scrum time when for the first time this season the Mavs pack buckled under the immense pressure put through the scrum by the massive Wirral front row particularly in the second half. A little piece of wise old man play from the Wirral front row wasn’t picked up be the ref who seemed to adopt a ‘turn a blind eye’ to boring in and handling on the ground, but hey ho! You get what you pay for at this level. As a final point an Anselms / Wirral fixture wouldn’t be complete without the punch up and that came in the 79th minute when the synchronised handbag swinging commenced. As a final piece of legendary captaincy Andy Smith launched a Tysonesque punch which landed somewhere near the head of one the opposition shouty types. What followed was something akin to a cross between Morris dancing and bitch slapping and the ref finally had enough. Final whistle blown and all off to the bar for a licking of wounds and post match court room drama.
This weeks man of the match was difficult to call as each player put their bodies on the line and no one shirked their responsibilities in the face of a strong committed opposition, as a result I am not selecting a man of the match but instead two t**t of the match awards go to Alan Mountford for his drop kick and his switch move and Andy Smith for his bitch slapping display at the very end of the game.
At least we won the bar !!
A good day in the rain and we can be thankful cos it could’ve been worse ……. we could’ve been playing for Manchester, hopefully the weather will improve for them next week.
Onwards to Hoylake and The men in green at the Cabbage Patch.
Semel a Mavericus, Semper a Mavericus
The Gaffer