Wirral U13’s….Come On Down!

It’s always good to meet up with the guys at Winnington Park and we often seem to enjoy good weather on our visits to Burrows Hill. Today was no exception.

We’d agreed to play three 20 minute sessions which suited Wirral well as we had a cast of thousands to shoehorn into the game. The players ran through the warm up with a smoothness that was later to recur in action. On Contestants Row to start with Andy and Arrold joined Cam on the front row with Ed and Matty packing down in the engine room backed up by Ryan , Taylor and Morgan on the back row. Ben and George started as the half backs, Will and Sean in the centres, Jamie and Conor on the wings with Cilla at full back.

Park took the early lead with their powerful outside centre making a break from just outside the Wirral 22 to run one in, unconverted. Wirral kept their composure and looked to use the space afforded to them on Park’s first team pitch which was huge. After Park managed to contain several Wirral breaks and held us up on two occasions the pressure was on Park and the ball went through the hands out to Conor on the wing…….COME ON DOWN Conor! Wirral evened the score to 5 all.

Park came back stronger and harder taking advantage of Wirral’s slow start technique, making a further break on the left wing and running one in under the posts making the conversion a certainty and the score 12-5 in Park’s favour. Wirral remained focused and used the space to their advantage getting the ball wide to strike-runner Jamie who on his second attempt ran from the half way line to score, apologising for not managing to get under the posts! COME ON DOWN Jamie! With the conversion missed the first session ended 12-10 to Park but the best was yet to come from Wirral.

Jacko and Harv joined Cam on the front row, Karl and The Niallator in the second row and Dave coming on for Ryan at flanker. Twigs came on at scrum half and Alex made his Wirral dayboo at fly with Will moving to inside, Woodsy on at outside and Donny at full back. Wirral kept the pressure on doing at great job at the set piece and at the breakdown providing the platform for Jamie to run in another two for his hat-trick one of which converted by Will. By the end of this session Wirral were in control and the score was 22-12 in our favour.

The changes for the final SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN session saw George go to scrum half, Donny at fly and some other changes that I can’t remember. Whatever we did, it seemed to work OK. Wirral played to their game plan (ha!) and drew in the Park defence creating space for our strike runners like Conor to run another one in, converted by Will who then got a try of his own. I make that 34-12.

In a strange sort of way the game kind of went according to plan. The forwards won the ball after tying up defenders, the ball went along the line to our strike runners who had the space to close the deal and our defence was mainly very strong. In a satisfying way, none of the players stood out because it was a true team effort, every player doing their job.

On the rugby conveyor belt tonight:
- Great rucking the ball back by Morgan
- Fantastic tackling from all but especially Ryan and George
- Creative chip throughs from Will and Woodsy gaining good territory
- Great line outs, more clean catches from Niall
- Fantastic defensive pressure resulting in turnovers
- Cuddly Toy

The coaches and players from Park are a nice bunch and it had to be one of the most positively played games of the whole season and fairly reffed.

Join us next week when once again I'll be saying "Come on down .....the price is right!"