West Park welcomed us to their Annual Tournament last Sunday and having been squeezed out of the semi finals by one try at the last tournament, we were determined to improve on our performance.
Unfortunately some of the children seemed to be half asleep for the first game against Macclesfield (who beat us in the semis at the Wilmslow Tournament in April), and instead of running forward to the try line when only yards away, they decided to pass down the line – great idea, but unfortunately it was often forward, or often dropped! We made unbelievable mistakes and Macclesfield exploited them each time. Nevertheless at times we played beautiful rugby with some very promising signs of things to come.
In the second game against West Park our performance was much improved. Players were switched on with the earlier defeat having given them a good kick start! Here we witnessed some of the superb defensive work we know our guys are capable of, with very few mistakes made. Indeed we only conceded one try! Our attack was pure poetry in motion and every child gave 100%.
West Park fielded a second team for the third game, and for some strange reason the ref kept stopping his clock so the first half lasted for about ten minutes and not the required 5 allowing our opponents to score a last minute try. At the start of the second half we were 3 all with everything to play for but we seemed to panic, dropped the ball, forward passed or ran sideways and West Park sneaked a fourth try past us despite our best efforts.
Our fourth game against L.S.H was a very interesting one to watch as most of their players persisted in running with one hand on the ball and handing off – wait till next year chaps!! Luckily for us our form had recovered, and all the earlier mistakes made were forgotten. Our troopers displayed some rugby above their years and it was a very thrilling match.
Widnes were our final challenge, and after the fiasco at Formby a couple of weeks ago, we wondered what we could expect this time. We fought bravely and  stormed the port to be 2 – 1 up at the end of the first half. The second half was tougher, Widnes must have been given a serious talking to! But we matched Widnes try for try maintaining our lead and awarding us the overall Runner’s Up position, guaranteeing us medals.
We had a fantastic day and wish to congratulate all our squad and thank them for their hard work.
Squad line up – Alex, Ben, James Mc, Nathan, Will, Tom, Rahul, Jack, Aidan, Morgan.
Trys scored by –Jack (7), Morgan (4), Will (4), Alex (2), Tom (1),
