Hoylake 89 v 7 Collegiate

A hard fought victory against a hard team. The scoreline did not reflect the qualities of the losing side. The visitors dominated the opening minutes with phase after phase of crash runners off the rucks,pinning Hoylake in their own 22 It looked like it was going to be a long afternoon. But the Hoylake defence stood strong and when the ball eventually got passed out it was intercepted and a length of the pitch run gave Dave Cooke the first of his 5 trys.
Wingers Connor Bradshaw and Sam Marsden both scored hat tricks and there were trys for forwards Pell Minks and Harvey. Also one for scrum half Phil Jones as well as 7 successful conversions for Rich Hill.
It was not that Collegiate played badly, because they did not,and a second half try was a just reward for their ongoing efforts, but this was Hoylake's day and they played some of the best 15 man rugby I have witnessed them play, pods of three at the breakdowns, setting up platforms for the backs to do their magic, along with strong tackling to prevent the opposition getting into their stride.