Following the encouraging performances at the recent Littleborough and Manchester tournaments, the first fixture of the season could not have produced a better result. In densely foggy conditions that were better suited to a Jack the Ripper film than playing rugby, the under 11s took on a strong, well organised Wirral squad and secured a well deserved 28 to Nil win.
From the outset, the Ormskirk forwards who all played with great enthusiasm took the game to Wirral with some especially strong running from Matt ‘The Rocket’ Reddy and Patrick ‘Butane’ Hagerty. On more than one occasion, the guys resembled a north Atlantic Ice breaker looming out from the mist. Miles ‘Sniffer’ Neve put in an outstanding all round performance at Scrum half and after equal quantities of running, tackling, scavenging for loose ball and shouting at his big daft forwards, it was no surprise that he bagged a hat-trick of tries and finished the day ‘on a jug’ (of orange juice).
With the backs making an equally significant contribution to the effort, Will ‘Snake Hips’ Church had a great game at Fly half making several darting runs whilst also putting in some big crunching hits and Ben Sefton was as dependable as ever at Full back. Adam Kingston and John Thornhill are quickly developing into a formidable centre partnership and this game was the first time that ‘Jonny’ Thornhill’s conversion kicking would be required. Needless to say he calmly slotted them all, however he did break the new kicking Tee!
The fog was certainly not ideal and at one point confused an Ormskirk player (who shall remain nameless) to the extent that he started to attack his own try line! However, the weather conditions did nothing to take the edge off an extremely well earned victory and a performance that all of the lads should be proud of.
Next game - Widnes, Away 25/11/07
