Woof! Let’s do-oo-oo it!

Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! The first fixture of the new season was at Winnington Park and the forecast was miserable. Fortunately the devil didn’t vomit on my eiderdown and it turned out fine. We had a number of debutants with Louis making his first appearance in the maroon and white stripes on the front row, Tom coming in on the wing, Macerz (a badly spelt attempt at trying to get “Macca’s” printed on his school training top) packing down in the second row and Joe making his return after being out with a minor injury last season (broken back). Welcome to all of you and what fine performance you put in.

With only limited training (yes, to you Greggo, training is something that happens to other people) we were keen to get some real action under our belts. With loads of forwards to choose from we started with Dave trying out at Hooker (well done Dave, you did fine) with Harv and Big G (that’s Andy Galliers apparently) Propping, Macerz and Matty in the second row, Donny and Morgan on the flanks and Joe packing down at 8. Twigs took the 9 shirt, Hensy at 10, Will inside, Woodsy outside, Ben and Jamie on the wings and Conman at the back. Skips was disappointed not to have made a start, complaining that he has been in the squad since 2009........yes, but so has syphilis.

After Porky shared the cunning game plan (a plan so cunning you could put ears, a nose and a tail on it and keep it as a pet) with the squad, the players took to the field of play. The early exchanges seemed fairly even but Wirral began to dominate the breakdown and Twigs got the ball away quickly to our strike runners and before long Wirral were two tries up (and maybe a conversion, not entirely sure?). Park could easily have lost their heads at this point but they showed a certain amount of admirable resilience and came back strong going one try ahead by the first break making some powerful runs and alerting the Wirral players to the fact that they had a game on their hands.

With fresh legs on the front row in the form of Arrold and Jacko, Karlos taking to the flank for Morgan, Wirral took to the field once more. Park took up where they left off and ran in several more tries after being more effective at the breakdown and getting the ball out to their powerful centres. Ben, after making a number of manful tackles, finally caught one right in the face and retired to the bench allowing Tom to make his dayboo shortly before the next break. Nursie (Pebs) attended to Ben’s injuries.

Again the front row was changed to give Louis and Skips a trot out, The Niallator coming into the second row, Haysie to the flank, G-Man at 9, Woodsy switched to 10, Greggo on at 8 for Joe who went to inside centre and probably some other changes that I can’t recall. Whilst Wirral made it difficult for themselves by being slow to the breakdown, when they did win ball they made sure that they used it. Will and Jamie both made breaks from around the halfway line to run in tries breaking through numerous tackles, Woodsy took a pass from ten metres out and jinked past two defenders to score, Joe made a break from halfway and cast defenders aside to score and Haysie fought from 5 metres, after a number of phases, to dive over score and then convert.

So, a great team performance. Nobody had a howler. There are things to work on, but for first game back....it was good. We laugh in the face of fear and tweak the nose of danger!

Thanks to Park for a great game, fairly reffed, and for their hospitality.

Off to Mrs Miggins Pie Shop for lunch and then home.
Woof!