Nay, Nay and Thrice Nay!

The elite Wirral players had been looking forward to this match ever since they woke up this morning. Due to waterlogging of the Ansmellmians pitches the venue was changed to Wirral but the Academy coach decided to bring his own ref with him for some reason. Moggy, who is well known to be of a delicate disposition, was deeply offended and didn’t utter a word from the touchline all game.

The list of absences this week included Sean (shoulder still), Joe (broken pinky), Harv unavailable, Arrold sick, Karl no show and Skips went over on his ankle in training. This allowed Wirral to demonstrate the depth of its squad, if not the strength.

The Academy coach had chosen to run three sessions to ensure everyone got good game time and the starting line-up for Wirral was Jacko, Donny and Louis on the front row, Macerz and Slasher on the second row, Dave, Tay and Greggo on the back row, Twigs 9, Hensy at 10, Will and Reece in the centres, Sauna (sorry but we can’t have two Toms so it’s Sauna and Nults from now on – live with it), Ben and Conman in the back three.

With the cold wind and driving rain we gave the oppo the chance to play down hill and with the wind for the first two sessions. They were unaware that I had prepped the team for altitude training by asking them to sleep on the top bunk all week. After two minutes the Wirral players began to tire demonstrating the value of the mid-week fitness training sessions that we don’t do. Small gaps began to appear in the Wirral defence and one of the players on the Academy team (but in a different strip!?) broke through to score….a couple of times. Wirral were a bit slow to support and consequently didn’t look like scoring until an Academy player fumbled and the ball went to ground allowing Will to scoop it up and accelerate into the corner and score. At the first break it was something like 19-5 to the Academy.

Ben had sustained his usual injury and so Nults took to the wing for the second session, still up hill, still into the wind. We’d had a chat about support during the break and against all the odds the Wirral players seemed to have listened and responded! Whilst were still losing the scrums, we did begin to dominate the breakdown and started putting the Academy players under pressure. Unfortunately the pressure was not enough to stop their outside centre making a number of piercing runs resulting in further scores for the Academy. By this time Will was getting a bit frustrated and so from a penalty on the Academy 22 instead of kicking for touch he decided to run it and handed off four defenders to score in the corner once more. By the time of the next break the score was 31-10 to the Academy.

Finally we changed ends, unfortunately the wind direction also changed and Wirral had a mountain to climb. For the final session we had wholesale changes with Big-G and Stef “inflicts” Payne joining Donny on the front row, Matty and the Niallator in the engine room, Morgs on the flank, G-Man at 9, Woodsy at 10, Ste at outside centre Jamie on the left wing and Reece moving out to the right wing.

Now, over the last few years we have spent a huge amount of time training the players to work as a team and clearly demonstrating that players bound together can prove unstoppable. The players have completely ignored our coaching tip preferring to go it alone and get flattened…..apart from today. About 15 metres out from the Academy line Greggo scooped up a loose ball and drove into the opposition. Most unusually he was supported by his fellow pack members who proceeded to drive him all the way to the try line where Greggo managed to force himself to the ground and score. One of the most satisfying tries I’ve seen the team score.

At this point the Academy were pinned to their 5metre line and their winger (who had moved out from centre) made a break and ran the length of the pitch to score under the posts. He is fast! Any how, it was now against the run of play and before long Wirral were back down towards the Academy 22 for a line out. Stef had noticed a pattern in the oppo hooker’s throws and snaffled the ball from the front of the line and burst through a number of tackles finally diving over the line with an Academy player hanging from his back as an air brake. Two forwards tries! Fantastic! It brings an additional attacking element to our game.

With little time left Wirral needed to keep scoring and score they did. Will looped around Ste to take the pass and forced his way over and then after a fantastic passage of play going from one side to the other through many sets of hands Woodsy broke from 10 metres out and forced his way past the defence for Wirral’s final score.

It was a great game and Wirral’s support play was fantastic and very satisfying from a coaching perspective. Points of note were:
- Donny’s first full game at hooker. Great throwing and moments of brilliance.
- Some great breaks from the Niallator, made hard yards
- Greggo was immense
- Reece had a great game opposite a difficult opponent
- Ste at centre gives us another option, some great breaks
- Good game at full back for Conman
- Dave didn’t get a nose bleed but did get a dead leg
- Stef made a number of breaks triggering forwards momentum

Although we didn’t win the overall match I was immensely proud of the achievements of the squad, some of the members still being in their first few games. Thanks to Jamie and Sean and thanks to their ref who did a good job. We look forward the next encounter. Good luck to the Academy in the Cup next week.

Oh please yourself!