Hoylake 1st XV v's Oswestry

Hoylake 30
Oswestry 22

After the worst possible start to the season last week, Hoylake bounced back with a respectable and hard fought victory against a solid Oswestry side.

Hoylake welcomed back influential skipper, Steve Young for his first outing of the season following surgery over the summer and back row dynamo Guy Byatt. Both of whom put in fine displays to ensure that the full compliment of points on offer went to the hosts.

Oswestry started strongly, led by their surprisingly bulky front 5. However, Young showed that he's none the worse for his lack of training and match practice by breaking from long range on several occasions.

In a purple patch midway through the first period, 18 year old Joe Lavin, who had been switched from scrum half to fullback to give him more freedom to show his pace, rewarded the selectors with a quick fire hat-trick, twice following good work from Young and once following a strike against the head by Mark Wylie.

To their credit, Oswestry scored a well worked try of their own to put them back in the match with the strong wind at their backs to come in the second period. The first half finished 20-5 with Steve Young adding a penalty to his side's 3 tries and 1 conversion.

Hoylake started the stronger in the 2nd period and another penalty from Young seemed to put the hosts out of sight. However, Oswestry came back again, and scored near to the posts. The try was converted. 23-12 to Hoylake. Just as the visitors were starting to press and with Hoylake down to 14 men for the second time in the match, Tom Selby, playing at scrum half broke free. He didn't have the pace to go all the way but managed to flick the ball to the supporting flanker, Matt O'Hanlon, who did the rest. Young converted and Hoylake seemed to be home and dry.

However, with another 15 minutes to play, Oswestry pulled a penalty back via their number 9, before their hooker exposed another lapse in concentration and easily trotted to the line from 15 metres out. The conversion was added. 30-22 to Hoylake.

With a couple of minutes remaining, this was too little too late but Oswestry still had the incentive of bonus points and almost got their reward. However, the referee called them back for a forward pass just as it seemed they were going to register their fourth try of the day.

As it was, Hoylake deserved their victory and bonus point, if nothing else, for their counter attacking prowess on the day. The Castle Motors sponsored Man of the Match went to Joe Lavin. Forwards, Ian Griffiths, Matt O'Hanlon and Guy Byatt weren't far behind. Not to mention the returning Steve Young in the centres and new signing James McLaughlin at fly half.

A great result based on the previous week's calamitous outing at Tyldesley but still plenty of room for improvement. The good news is that Hoylake still have a couple of key players to return to their already dangerous looking back line, including Matt McLaren, Dan Baldock and Rich Young. Two of which will be available for selection next week against league newcomers, Ashton-on-Mersey.