By Jove!

Tattyfilarious! Nick-nacky-nick-nock-nicky-nacky-noo! Are you tickled missus? Upon arrival at Ruthin I was a bit discumknockerated because word on the street was (and I don’t mean “Araf”) that Ruthin were a tough outfit with quite a high level of success. To add to that there is a mismatch between the Welsh Continuum and the English and as we were the visitors we would need to adopt the local rules. As it turned out the laws we played to were not too onerous for either side and thanks to Grant, the Ruthin coach, for that.

The injury list this week was much shorter than of late and only included Sean, Tay and Arrold. To start this week we had Jacko, Donny and Stef on the front row ,Slasher and Macerz on the second row, Morgs & Karlos on the flanks and The Niallator took his first run out at No8. Twigs took the 9 berth, Will at 10, Joe Inside, Woodsy Outside, Conman and Jamie on the wings and Ste at full back.

From kick-off Ruthin showed their intent and dominated the breakdown with an intensity that Wirral seemed unable (or unwilling?) to match. The play was all within the Wirral half and an unnerving amount of it within the 22. The Wirral defence soaked up a large amount of pressure but the Ruthin boys forced their way through a couple of times only for the ref to determine that there was a double movement and a the ball lost forward.

By this time the Wirral forwards were fully clued up on Ruthin’s attack but the Wirral backs had seen little action in attack or defence. Due to the intense forwards battle going on there were a number of handling errors and a number of scrums as a result. Wirral seemed to find it difficult to win even their own ball with the Ruthin hooker demonstrating some extraordinary stretching and desire to win the ball. Wirral saw very little possession as a result and spent most of their time defending. The strength of the Ruthin backs showed through on two occasions when Wirral missed a tackle and then were unable to catch Ruthin’s strike runners. A very tough half with Ruthin in the ascendancy and looking dominant. Score 10-0 to the hosts.

At half time we made some changes with Big-G, Skips and Louis taking to the front row, Matty & Nults on the second row, Dave (taking time out from searching for the lost Malaysian airliner) & Harv on the flanks and The Niallator staying at 8. G-Man came on at 9, Hensy took the 10 shirt, Will & Joe in the centres, Ben went on the right wing and Sauna went to full back.

Due to the intense nature of the first half most of the spectating players had worked out that they would have to give their all to compete. It was an impressive response and the Wirral boys began to fight back. Admittedly most of the action was in the Wirral half once again but the defence became even more robust. Wirral once again were defending their line when there was ruck and The Niallator counter-rucked forcing the Ruthin players off the ball making it available to be passed out making its way to Joe who made a break and then continued the length of the pitch to score under the posts, converted by Will.

G-man took a knock to the eye and so was replaced by Twigs, Greggo took over the 8 shirt from the Niallator. Wirral again soaked up a huge amount of pressure on their line, Ruthin at one point grounding it just short. By this point Wirral had sussed the scrums out and from a 5metre scrum the ball came out to Will who broke two tackles and then ran the length of the pitch to score once more under the posts, converting his own try. The score line now stood at 10-14 in Wirral’s favour with only 10 minutes to go.

The intensity from both sides continued in both attack and defence.Wirral knew that they would have to defend hard to retain their winning scoreline. There was a period of intense pressure on the Wirral line, defended with sheer determination by the Wirral boys, when the ref noticed that an isolated Ruthin ball carrier did not release for fear of being turned over and a penalty was awarded to Wirral for them to clear their lines with only seconds to go. Will took the kick to clear the lines to a round of applause only to be met with the ref’s decision to reverse the penalty as he noticed one of the WIrral players slightly in front of the kicker. Ruthin drove for the line and dived over, appearing to spill the ball, but the ref, who had a much better vantage point than I, awarded the try to finish the game 15-14 in Ruthin’s favour.

Despite the loss there were some massive performances today from the Wirral players. Worthy of special mention are: Big-G and Louis making some fantastic clear outs at the ruck, another great intense performance from Morgs, great first run out at 8 for The Niallator, nearly a full game for Twigs who stayed the distance and great shouting again by Conman. How tickled Iam!

Well done to the whole squad – a performance to be proud of. Remember it.

Thanks to Grant and his fellow coaches, thanks to the Ruthin players, thanks also to the ref who was fair to both sides.

Tatty Bye!