back to winning ways

Hoylake took a very thinned team to Widnes,and welcomed three new former junior colts to the team, in Connor, Nathan and Steve. After being stuck on the Runcorn Bridge 14 players eventually started against the home side, but did not take long to get points on the board, as a solid scrum set the backs up for a straight forward passing line to put winger Dave Cooke over in the corner.

An almost carbon copy event occurred minutes later from a turnover in the Widnes half, Cooke going over for his 2nd try. This time Danny O'Neill got the conversion with the Widnes touch judge lifting his arm, however the referee did not record it for some reason!

Not too much later a third try, this time from centre John Howell, was scored in very similar circumstances. However this was not to be the story for the whole game.

Play resumed with Widnes coming back stronger with some good play at the breakdowns and mauling their way to good field position , then some weak defence let them through for a try in the corner.

15 minutes into the game, and Hoylake seemed to go to sleep after the arrival of the missing player and the advantage of a full xv! whether it was a little complacency or something else, Widnes took advantage and kept the visitors pinned in their own 22 for the rest of the half, but failed to turn the pressure into points thanks to some very dogged defence. However it was Hoylake's poor discipline and handling errors that put them there in the first place.

The 2nd half started very much in the way that the 1st half ended with Widnes controlling the way the game was played. A string of penalties in Hoylake's own 22 led to the eventual try for Widnes.

That must have been the kick the Hoylake needed to pull their socks up and the pack eventually found their rhythm at the scrums again, putting the hosts on their back foot, John Howell stormed through a load of missed tackles and put himself over the line for his 2nd.

That was more like the Hoylake performance of the first quarter. At last Hoylake started to play outside of their half and a line out set the backs up once more with Howell making another bullocking run through the Widnes defence, passing to Jay Baldock to finish under the posts, good Rugby, O'Neill converting , this time acknowledged by the ref!
A litter of bodies on the pitch prompted the referee to blow up with a couple of minutes to go but the job was done. not pretty, and far too many silly mistakes, but a win is a win.