Despite their loss to Chester in the first match, Wirral remained confident of their ability - and they were proved right!

Captain of the day, Harvey, generously allowed Winnington Park to kick-off even though we won the toss but it wasn’t long before Wirral began to stamp their dominance on the opposition. The play was all one way with Wirral focussing on retaining possession, forwards quick to the breakdown but finding it hard to make a break. After a succession of breakdowns close to the WP try line Elliott managed to get a pass away to Kieran who was able to offload in the tackle to Sam Wood who was left with a depleted number of defenders to beat to dive over for the first Wirral try of the day.

The Wirral players were so elated by this score that they spent quite some time congratulating themselves on what was clearly a team effort. Meanwhile WP had re-started, were in the process of turning us over to run in an undefended try.

Alerted to the imminent danger of complacency, focus was regained and the team pulled together once more. The re-start kick was well chased and was turned over by Cam who was quickly supported by the rest of the pack and Elliott who passed it out away from the contact through several sets of hands for the speedy Sam Thornley to run in over the line.

WP managed to get one back and it seemed as though it might turn into a “one for me, one for you” draw. After Wirral’s re-start kick, the ball was once again turned over by the Wirral forwards (ably supported by David who was notable for his commitment at the breakdown) somewhere near the half way line. Elliott managed to get it away to Will who turned on the pace to avoid three WP defenders and dot the ball down.

Wirral were keen to remain in control and again turned the ball over and strong defence from the Wirral centres, Will and Harry B, saw WP struggle to get far from their try line. With the pressure on, WP were forced into touch 5 metres out. Cam read the field position well and gave the call for Harvey to adopt the wrecking ball move to surge over the line and touch the ball down. Great thinking, great communication, great execution and great teamwork for creating the opportunity.

All in all, team work to create opportunities and the desire to execute them.