Wirral Junior Colts win Cheshire Plate

For the final fixture of the season, Wirral made the short journey to Caldy to play Lymm in the final of the Cheshire Plate. For one of the first times this season, Wirral were able to pick from a near full squad with only Jack Smith (Thumb) and Cam Mercer (Shoulder) missing out with injuries.

Wirral started the game strong attacking against a slight breeze and quickly began to get into their patterns of play with strong forward runs which allowed good ball for the backs. A mixture of good defence from Lymm and uncharacteristic sloppy handling kept the score level, until Tom Owens crossed the line from close range to give Wirral a 5-0 lead.

For the rest of the half Wirral had to absorb pressure as Lymm used their big ball carriers to try and break the Wirral line. But Wirral stood firm and some excellent scramble defending kept Lymm out. However after Wirral had been adjourned to have hands on in a ruck, the Lymm fly half kept his nerve to slot a penalty kick from 30 metres to narrow Wirral's lead to 5-3. HT

The message at half time was to keep the belief and stick to our patterns and eventually the pressure would tell. And so it turned out to be, good forward play allowed Alfie Kimpton to find space out wide and beat numerous would be tacklers to score under the sticks. 12-3. And the lead was extended a matter of minutes later when I great take off the restart from Che Hannigan saw the ball recycled and George McCann broke through the Lymm line and run the length of the field to score. 19-3.

Wirral scored two further tries through Archie Manger who followed up some great line breaks with excellent support play, and a penalty kick from Will Morris was enough to secure a 32-3 win for Wirral. The lads throughly deserved a piece of silverware this season and players and coaching staff alike with feel hard done by that they weren't in the Cup Final that was played straight after- a target for next year I'm sure!

The win topped off a brilliant season for Wirral, who finished 3rd in the A League and also a semi final appearence in the League Cup. Next year will see the lads enter Senior Colts where they hope to surpass this years acheivements.