Hoylake 1st XV v's West Park

Hoylake 7
West Park 20

Hoylake paid the price for fielding too many changes and for lacking their usual heart and agression by losing convincingly to a struggling West Park side.

The hosts started the better and scored a try through Matt O'Hanlon who was by far Hoylake's best performer on the day. However, a couple of penalties conceded and a couple of mistakes by Hoylake, then what had looked like a West Park side lacking in confidence, suddenly realised they had a chance in the match. Hoylake, missing 8 players due to unavailabilty from the previous week's fixture against Glossop, struggled to gain any kind of foothold in the game and found themselves trailing 13-7 at half time.

For the remainder of the match, Hoylake tried to spark but were lacking continuity in every aspect of the match and West Park looked the more likely to finish the match in style. With just 10 minutes remaining and Hoylake having failed to add to their tally, a rolling maul appeared to be stopped about 20 metres out. As the maul broke up, the Park number 6 broke blind and unbelievably found himself unopposed and sprinted in for the deciding score. This defensive lapse summed up the day for the hosts.

Granted, Hoylake were lacking some key players but they should have had enough strength in depth to win the match, particularly with some of the experience that was drafted into the side from the prolific 2nd XV. As it was, West Park did more than enough to win and will undoubtedly take heart from their performance.

Next week, Hoylake have a difficult trip to Collegiate to contend with, however, the majority of the absent players will be returning from their unfortunately timed holidays and weekend breaks!