Silverware at Hoylake

Wirral Warriors consisting of David, Ethan, Fraser, Haigh, Harry Mac, Harry W, James, Jacob H, Jacob HS and Paddy were drawn in Pool B with Bowdon Moles, Winnington Wolves, Birkenhead Park, Sefton and Caldy South.

The tournament started well with a hard fought 9-8 win over a good Bowdon team and a 5-3 victory against Winnington Wolves followed by a two hour gap which gave the boys the opportunity to get distracted, fill themselves with pop and sweets and in one notable instance fall off a bench and bump his head!

Eventually matches resumed and narrow wins against very good Birkenhead Park (9-7) and Sefton (7-6) teams secured qualification for at least the Plate final and put the Warriors on maximum points going in to a group decider against local rivals Caldy South who had won three and drawn one of their matches.

Both teams started strongly with each of the opening attacks producing tries before a couple of turnovers by Caldy gave Warriors the chance to move into a 5-3 lead at half time. The second half was similar to the first with a Caldy error giving Wirral the chance to go three points up as the final minutes approached but things got a bit tighter as a run into touch by Wirral surrendered possession and some pacey attacking saw Caldy close the gap to 9-8 at the final whistle but Warriors progressed to the Cup final with a 100% record.

The final saw Warriors matched against a quick and well drilled Winnington Wildcats who opened the scoring and then applied strong pressure to break down the Wirral attack and go two points up very quickly. This pattern was repeated and Warriors found themselves 0-4 at half time.

The boys found their rhythm in the second half rediscovering their penetrating running and speedy finishing from earlier matches and the game was end to end, with Wirral scoring the final try to finish the match 5-8.

The day finished with a presentation at which the lads got a medal each and a trophy which we’ll rotate round the whole squad. Just rewards for their performances.

All in all a superb day with the quality of rugby and the on pitch results showing just how well the team has progressed which is even more remarkable given that half of the squad were new to rugby this year.