On a lovely Sunday morning Wirral invited ourselves and what looked like the Ellesmere Port Colts over for some much needed match practice.
After my customary male embrace with Porky and general exchange of niceties it’s time to get down to business, surely as the guests we will get a gentle introduction to the days play??????????
First up was the juggernauts of Ellesmere Port ,of course Wirral weren't going to play them first as Steve and his team are much to wise for that!!
This team have always been our Achilles heel not least due to their physical size which at this age plays a massive advantage especially in the minds of 11yr olds. Anyway I need not have worried this time as 'The Saints' were most definitely up for this one. We kicked to the biggest player (as you do) and Owen proceeded to follow the kick and dutifully flatten his man with a text book tackle right out of the Jonny Wilkinson David v Goliath art of tackling well above your size annual ... This set the scene for an impressive performance of attacking from depth, hunting in numbers and organising a flat defence- perfect. We eventually ran out 10-0 winners much to the pleasure of everyone Anselmian.
No sooner had we thrown that giant monkey from our back than the ‘wise old Steve’ ushered us on to the park to take on his much improved Wirral Stars, I must learn a trick from him……….
Without a moment to dwell Wirral attacked us from the off and caused us plenty of trouble scoring a well taken try. Once we had caught breath and realised we were in a game we began to play like the outfit we have become attacking from clever angles and the forwards making the hard yards. We got back on level terms, but then proceeded to allow some sloppy handling to gift Wirral the territory to score a soft try. All hands now to the pump and Ewan went in for a good try with a few minutes remaining on the clock.We then lay siege to the Wirral line for the remainder of the game only to find our efforts thwarted. A fair result 10-10 draw considering the excellent improvement of Wirral from last season and the after effects of the previous game.
Our final match saw us blood all of our new players against a Wirral development team. Following on from the previous 2 games we set about the task with a real hunger to hunt, tackle and attack. Wirral stayed in the game until half time but with the introduction of out of position experience we were able to dominate the 2nd half proceedings and eventually run in 3 unanswered tries.
A massive mention must go to our new players Greg, Nathan, Harry and Richard for all your efforts we hope you enjoyed the day and very much hope you will be around for many more, but the biggest shout goes out to Robert who considering it was his first appearance for the Saints he looks to be an awesome prospect, well played one and all!
Onwards and upwards gentlemen…………….
Thanks to Phil from E Port.Steve,Al ,Tom,Paul and Porky from Wirral. To the referees Ken and Al for making it a great day .