Wirral start as they mean to go on...

Wirral began their final season together as a team against a familiar foe in Waterloo. In glorious sunshine on Waterloo's wide 1XV pitch, Wirral were eager to use their pace to stretch Waterloo. Wirral welcomed new recruit Maddy Barber, making his debut in the second row, and a late loss of Archie Manger (illness) saw Cam Mercer move into the centres with Dan Taylor filling in at Fly Half.

Wirral started strong and soon put Waterloo under pressure in their own 22. Excellent defensive pressure saw a clearance kick charged down and Will Morris did excellently to offload to Maddy Barber who ran clear to score under the sticks- converted by Tom Akehurst. 0-7
The resulting kick off went straight out of play and off the scrum, Wirral continued to attack the Waterloo line; a penalty allowed Will Morris to give Wirral a line out in the Waterloo 22 where the ball was gathered and a driving maul allowed Wirral to get some go forward ball where it was shipped out to the backs for Will Morris to go under the sticks- converted by Tom Akehurst. 0-14

Waterloo eventually got into the game when Wirral were caught trying to play out of their own half one too many times and after excellent ball retention, the pacey Waterloo backs managed to squeeze in out wide to score. Conversion missed. 5-14. From this point, the game seemed to even up until excellent link up play between Will Morris and Tom Akehurst saw the latter throw a beautiful dummy which sold the would be defenders and allowed Tom to run under the sticks for Wirral's third score of the game- the try was converted. 5-21.
Just before half time Wirral did well to win a penalty on the Waterloo 10 metre line. Will Morris elected to have a shot at goal which he duly converted to make the score 5-24 at HT.

Wirral now had a slight breeze behind there back and at half time the plan was to pin Waterloo back. However, much to their credit, Waterloo hit back with an excellent try after a great break from their inside centre- Try converted. 12-24. This seemed to encourage Waterloo and after winning the ball back in their own 22 they bravely spread the play out wide where the Waterloo winger nearly ran the length of the field, until fantastic tracking back from Rob Marsden saw him save a would be try. Unfortunately, Waterloo did well to look after the ball and after 3 more phrases, scored under the posts for a converted score. 19-24.

Wirral, now under a lot of pressure managed to regain some possession and won a penalty from an infringement at the breakdown. A great kick from Will Morris deep into the 22 allowed Wirral to drive the ball over the line from the resultant line out to score in the corner- conversion missed-19-29. However this work was quickly undone as another break from the Waterloo back line saw them score under the posts to reduce the deficit to 3 points after a converted try- 26-29.

Into the final ten minutes, and the ascendancy was with Waterloo. Great defence from Alex Jones managed to hold Waterloo out from another score, and allowed Wirral to regain possession- where a fantastic switch of play from Dan Taylor saw him put Will Morris through a gap and follow up with a great supporting line to regain the ball and outpace the covering defence to score in the corner- conversion missed. 26-34.

Wirral were not finished there, and an excellent solo effort from Will Morris saw him chased his own chip forward to score out wide for an unconverted score to wrap up a topsy turby affair, Final score 26-39.

All involved were happy with the performance against a strong opponent, but the players were able to draw on aspects of the game they felt needed improvement and look forward to working on them this week at training. The result tops off a great weekend for the team, which also saw 5 of the lads play for the senior side the day before in a great win over Oxton Parkonians- with Will and Tom scoring 5 tries between them. Well done also to Reiss Kerr, Jack Smith and Tommy Wainwright for getting on as well. Next week sees the Colts play their first home game of the season against Sedgley Park- keep an eye on the website for the match preview.