This match against Hud having played them twice in this year’s Papa John’s cup and currently each
side have one game, we had played them some years ago when we were in the same league. The
game at the Memorial Ground was played in ideal conditions. Wirral again made changes to the side
that won at Derby last week with JAMES REEVE coming into the back row in place of unavailable
CONNOR MOORE; other players (4) from the first team squad continue to be unavailable. The
substitutes were DAN HARVEY, DAN CARROL and ALEX WILLIAMS. Wirral played with pink and white
ringed socks as one of the first team players partner was suffering from Breast Cancer and wished to
support that charity.
Wirral played with the slight breeze in their favour towards the clubhouse which is contrary to their
usual preferences of normally playing towards the clubhouse in the second half.
After 2 minutes a break by Hud when a tackle was missed enabled them to set pass inside and give
the player an easy run which was duly converted. The away team were looking to play open rugby
and were keen to attack the Wirral side. On 11 mins, Wirral drew level from play in the Hud half
where they had possession for several attacks; the ball came out to RHYS JAMES who managed to
pass onto TOM COLE who scored in the right hand corner with try being well converted by RHYS’ 7-7.
Hud continued to play open rugby and Wirral were containing them in what was now an open
match. Wirral continued to attack but difficult to break through the Hud defence.
JOHNNY CARROL came off for 10 mins suffering from a rib injury and was replaced by DAN HARVEY
(to scrum half) but recovered to join the match. On 34 mins another missed tackle enabled HUD to
score their second try which was not converted, 7-12. In the minute before half time, Wirral took a
penalty shot at goal from 40m but shaved the post; a score would have greatly benefitted Wirral
when it comes to their half time discussion. This half had been a very energetic game with HUD
having greater attacking flair.
At the start of the second half, ALEX WILLIAMS came on for MATT RINGER. At the start of the half,
HUD increased the lead when the ball went out wide to the winger who raced up the touchline, a
missed tackle by Wirral enabled HUD to score in the corner and the try was well converted to give
HUD a 7-19 lead on 43 mins. 10 mins later a long kick downfield resulted in a 5m scrum, HUD
screwed the scrum enabling them to score their 4 th try (Bonus point) wide out, again converted to
increase their lead to 7-26 (53 mins). Two minutes later, Wirral dropped the ball when attacking
collected by HUD who raced in from 75m to score under the posts, 7-33 (55mins).
DAN HARVEY and JOHN RALPH came on for TOM CROFT and ADAM DON. Wirral now had play in the
Hud. 20m area and crossed the line only for the referee to deem that it was not touched down over
the line, came back for the penalty and strong push from Wirral was rewarded with a try by MATT
RINGER, again converted by RHYS JAMES 14-33 (62 mins).
Following this pressure giving Wirral some movement forward, this was lost some 3 minutes later
when HUD were able to power over another try under the posts, duly converted 14-40. Wirral
continued to apply pressure and were rewarded with a third try scored by TOM COLE wide out on
the right, which was well converted by RHYS JAMES to reduce the deficit to 21-40 on 75 mins.
In the last 5 minutes applied further pressure in the hope of scoring a fourth try and a bonus point
but this was not to be achieved despite working hard to break through. A disappointing result given

the number of tackles missed which then led to tries from the fluent HUD wingers who were given
the space to exploit the Wirral defence.
Next week, Wirral are away at Leek who currently lie 4 th in the table, kick off 3.00pm
Richard McNeil