England v Wales U16

(or was it actually a total coincidence?) we arranged for our first fixture of the season to be against our old rivals Ruthin. They are always incredibly tough and it's always a thrilling fixture played in the true spirit of the game.

To welcome them to the club we had the Wirral flag flying alongside St George's cross. Once the first whistle blew the niceties ended. Ruthin always have a ferocious pack and today they were even ferociouserer than usual. The early exchanges were dominated by the Welsh pack but handling from both sides suffered as the tackling was fast and furious resulting in a number of scrums, which again the Ruthin pack dominated.

As time went by it came to mind that we could potentially have gone through the whole half without a score. It also came to mind that I hadn't checked how long we play for at this new age group. Fortunately, the referee was in total control and knew all there was to know.

After a number of changes of possession and resolute defences the ball was eventually lost forward by Wirral in a tackle and the Ruthin fly half played the advantage, scooping the ball up and running through to the line where he made a dive and appeared to lose the ball forward as he did so. To his surprise the Ref gave the try which was duly converted. TMO?

After the restart there were more crunching tackles and ensuing rucks with Wirral making the occasional break only to be thwarted by handling errors. One such break resulted in a rolling maul 10 metres out where Wirral were able to put all that training into practice (I wish) for Charlie to dive over and score out wide. The conversion was missed.

In the second half Wirral had a further two try attempts judged to be held up and Ruthin were able to maximise their forwards' dominance by scoring a second converted try.

A little bit like the Welsh national team, injuries were a problem with one of their players taking a turn for the worse as the game ended and needed an ambulance to #carrythemhome . Our own flanker, Sean, suffered a blow to the forehead requiring him to take a trip to A&E where has was in good company.....three of the Ruthin boys were in the cubicle next door. Sean had some butterfly stitches and Wirral NHS Trust patched up the Ruthin boys all of whom are fine I understand.

So, it really was a bruising encounter and was a hard fought close match. Wirral will need to work harder in the return fixture to over come Ruthin's tough and quick pack. Thanks to Ruthin for a great-spirited game, thanks to Grant & the coaches and let's hope the boys that suffered injuries will be back in action soon. Thanks also go to Moggy for reffing.

Let's hope the national team fare better than we did.

Swiinng lowwwww sweet chariot......
#carrythemhome