With the winter seeming to have passed for now, the conditions were excellent albeit a little heavy underfoot, Only a slight breeze and sunshine greeted the supporters on what would be a solid performance from the men in red, white and green. Pre Game was the VP’s lunch which is always well attended with some old faces coming out of the wood work and by the look of some off them meandering the streets of Hoylake after the game, thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Dave Armitage suffering an atomic wedgie was one particular highlight (some things don’t change)

Anyway onto the game itself. Today’s opponents were Eagle, who although lying at the foot of the table (thanks of GOM going AWOL) they had won 3 out of the last 5 and would have been in high spirits. The previous encounter had seen Hoylake scrape through with a very underwhelming performance, winning 19-10.

Hoylake fielded one of the strongest packs (including bench) for a long time. The backs were also there. The front row consisted of Matt O'Neill, Will Dow and Darren Agnew. The on form duo of Will Selby-Milic and Steve Crone in the engine rooms and the back row of Matt Ross, Matt Evans and skipper, Jake Woods at No.8. Half backs this week were the ever present Tom Selby-Milic and Joe Lavin. A ‘tactical’ call in the centres with Matt O’Hanlon at 12 with Ritchie Young in the 13 shirt. Wingers Dan ‘ the butcher’ Lewis and Max Billington with 2nd team captain Dan O'Neill at full back. The bench saw the return of two long term injured players, Byatt and Corkhill, Ian Griffiths, Phil Jones and coach Rob Kurton took up the other available births
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Hoylake kicked off and should have had at least two tries up in the opening five minutes, but poor execution and silly offloads (you know who you are) kept the scoreboard idle. It took 15 minutes before the first score, a simple lineout move was actually thrown straight, caught, set and driven. Skipper Jake Woods emerged with the ball to register the first of 8 scores. Two minutes later Hoylake had a try disallowed for a knock on in the build-up but five minutes later a penalty try was given for bringing down a driving maul (we believe this happened as I wasn’t looking, the bench boys can’t see that far and no one claimed it). The Eagles clawed their way back and had plenty of passion but couldn’t create anything substantial and rarely got out of their half. A messy 10 mins ensued with the Eagle centre being harshly yellow carded for a deliberate knock on, shortly followed by a handbags at dawn between The Butcher and his opposite man. Both spending 10 mins in the bin for their trouble.

The only other action of the half was a fairly simple try for Joe Lavin who took a simple 2 on 1 well to leave the scores at Half Time 19-0. Hoylake rarely getting out of 3rd gear. The half time message from the ever cheerful coaching staff was simple. Stop trying to score of 1st phase and if the ‘glory boys’ could do their job rather than wait for balls on the wings that would be great. Simplicity and structure was the key and with a rather one sided 2nd half to follow, seems they were right.

It didn’t take long before the bonus try was in the bag. Max Billington finished off the sweeping move after good work from Jake Woods who gathered the kick off, chipping through only to slip before he could regather the ball. Max desperate to break his scoring duck, gladly gathered the ball for a 1 metre stroll over the whitewash. (Chris I believe you owe him a Jug). The bonus point try was converted, this time by Dan O'Neill. It was the other O’Neill next on the score sheet, although it was hard to tell which O’Neill it was due to the Xmas weight still being carried by the 2nd XV Skipper. A stereotypical Matt try as he barged over after spinning out of a tackle. It wasn’t going to get any easier for Eagle as Big Griffalo entered the fray for Darren Agnew and it wasn’t long before he too barged his way over from close range. Both tries were converted.

With 25 mins left a triple substitution was made with Corkhill, Byatt and Phil Jones coming on for Dan O’Neill, Steve Crone and Matt Evans (I think). Corkhill’s first input was to give away a penalty under the Eagle sticks for not rolling away, then being stepped from the quick tap. Well played. The final 2 scores of the day came from the centre duo. Matt O’Hanlon finished off the try of the game with a move straight from an Eagle restart. The ball caught by Matt O’Neill, who through an audacious dummy, offloaded to Woods who fed Byatt who had space in front on him. Everyone expecting a knock on or to take it into contact, he did something never seen, he caught the ball and distributed it to his supporting runner Joe Lavin. Leaving a simple 2 on 1 Lavin fed Moh for an easy run in. Rich Young’s score was never going to be so glorious, 1st phase off a breakdown, straight through his opposite man for a simple touch down.
This brought an end to the scoring and despite some pressure from Eagle in the dying 5 mins, they were unable to get over the whitewash. Credit to them as I believe they were struggling with availability this week. Something Hoylake are too familiar with.

Overall a good performance and banana skin avoided. A few stand out performers, Matt Ross at 6 is making the position his own and loved the contact all day, Matt O’Hanlon played well at 12 despite being found in most breakdowns. Something he doesn’t do when he’s usually in this back row position, however MOM went to Max Billington for breaking his Duck.

The next league fixture in 2 weeks sees the 1st XV travel to Port Sunlight for our last away league game of the season.

p.s. I’m pretty sure I saw Sparky with his camera so photos may follow.