Mossley Hill

Mossley Hill match report.

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.”

Pretentious, thy name is Gaffer. Thought it was about time I brought a bit of culture to the proceedings, however, the sentiments remain. A great day of rugby, some brilliant individual performances and a fatally dominating and crushing performance by a scrum that reduced the opposition to a pile of ashes in the centre of the park. The expression ‘victim of our own success’ rings true today and valuable lessons will be learnt from this outing. The overwhelming power and dominance of the scrum provided an opportunity for Mossley Hill to go uncontested due to their winger going off injured and their hooker going into the centres (I know, don’t ask !!!) one of the many unusual events associated with today. This creative use of players allowed MH to go from 0% possession from the set piece to 50% in one fell swoop. Fortunately The Mavs still had plenty of firepower to take control of the game by the scruff of the neck for the next 60 mins.
The day was designed for forwards but as a result of the above loss of impetus from our set piece scrum the backs stepped up with three of the five Mavs tries, the remainder coming from the ever impressive Dan Jenner at 8 who is showing what an incredible talent he is in the back row and the massive presence of Hastey in the second row.
The final score of 33-24 flattered the opposition with two tries scored in the final 10 minutes by the Hill backs who, following the introduction of their bench, developed an attacking pace not seen for the previous seventy minutes. This provided the opportunity for an additional 12 points to be amassed and the scores to be more closely aligned.
The Mavs game plan was, as always, to keep the ball moving, stretch the defence to create the gaps which our backs would be able to exploit to their maximum potential.
The first try came from exactly that, as the ball was swung wide to allow Tom Campbell to skip clear of the opposition to score out wide and register the first 5 points of the day. The try went unconverted. Mossley Hill quickly responded with a try that took the Mavs by surprise and was ultimately converted to make the scoreboard read 7-5.
Cometh the hour etc etc and up steps the unstoppable Dan Jenner who picks from the base of the scrum and runs in from 22 metres out. One conversion later and the lead changes 7-12. A second try from Tom Campbell followed which was was duly converted 7-19. It was at this stage that the Mavs went through the forwards and just before half time Sean Hastewell crashed over after a sustained period of pressure. The Hill pack maintained a strong defence which held for a while before the pick and go eventually shipped through a single pair of hands and ended up in the clutches of Hastey who took the score to 7-26. Mossley Hill responded with a try of their own to bring the score to 12-26 then the final Mavs score came by the way of our mercurial fly half Seth who broke from his own half leaving the Hill back line in a confused state as to where he had disappeared to as they were certain he was right there in front of then one minute and dotting down over the try line a second later. The foot work was a joy to watch from the touch line as was the speed to pull away from the fruitless pursuing defenders. 12-33 at this stage.
Two late tries from the Mossley Hill back line resulted in the 24-33 final score and a win to send Mavs back up to top of the table.
And so to the team. Some very special mentions this week. Top of the tree for me was Jay Howcroff who started his first game for the Mavs at tight head and what a deput. Despite taking a high ball to the head he played well and was an integral part of the punishing scrum that forced the opposition to generate the conditions to force an uncontested scrum. The pack as a whole dominated and totally nullified the opposition. Great to see the Elwells back in the fight and a welcome return to Del Alderson who returned after the enforced co-vid break for his first performance of the season. Tom Campbell continues to be …… well, Tom Campbel, elusive, rapid and a continual threat in attack and a brick wall in defence. Too many individual performances to go through one at a time but to sum up this weeks man of the match goes to Seth Geary as voted for by both myself and by Mossley Hill. A great individual performance scoring an outstanding try and forming part of back line which kept the opposition guessing all afternoon.
Here’s to our next outing to North Wales and our friends at Mold, a friendly fixture, before returning to league action and Oldershaw.
We’ve just over a month to go to then Mavs Curry Night so keep your diaries free.
In the mean time, as always “it’s been emotional”.

Semel a Mavericus, Semper a Mavericus

The Gaffer