Sefton 3's -v- Hoylake 2's

Well, going into the 7th game of this season (having lost the 1st game by 3 points due to only being able to field 14 men and winning the next five with a pack that’s changed every week!) on form it should be an easy Hoylake win, but from past experience Sefton usually turn out a huge sized pack and their backs aren’t much smaller, so today it was somewhat nerve-wracking to see the youngest side yet to wear the 2nd team shirts run out here at Sefton. Only 3 recognised forwards in the pack and a back row with some new young faces making their debuts!

Kick Off and 5 minutes into the game Sefton’s humungous no.10 ran through the Hoylake backs to score the first try, 5mts after that he scored 3 points from a penalty (10-00). The afternoon was starting to look dismal from the point of view that the Hoylake backs were going to struggle stopping the continuous surging runs made by the Sefton No. 10 from the ball secured by his large forwards. Hoylake did make a breakaway try and conversion and another try in quick succession (10-12) only to have Sefton score another converted try shortly thereafter (17-12) and another try (22-12) with Hoylake scoring a converted try just before half-time (22-19). Taking into consideration that Will Dow when making one of his cutting runs nearly had his head taken off his shoulders by a straight arm across his throat! and the number of penalties given against Hoylake for ‘offences’ that Sefton seemed to be totally innocent of, this was a good half-time score.
A big team talk from the stand-in Captain ‘AGGY’ and his more senior players encouraging the smaller and younger players to tackle harder and to make use of their speed showed a difference in the second half. To reduce the number of penalties awarded in the second half (Fat Chance!) Hoylake made great use of their speedy backs by securing the ball as cleanly as possible, putting it over the heads of the Sefton backs and down the throat of their fullback, or passing it out and running it through the opposition, Gary HUMMERSTON out on the wing mesmerising the opposition with his ‘Grobbelar Shimmy’and making great gains every time he was given the ball, this all resulted in three tries (2 converted) with no reply from the now tired Sefton forwards! The final try being scored by new boy Tom WOOD, coming on as replacement winger for Steve GARDENER Final result (22-38).

Overall a great team performance led by stand in Captain Danny 'Aggy Agnew!

Great first run-outs from new boys:- Harry ANDERSON (try scorer), Aaron WOODS & Tom WOOD (try scorer), with tries from Matty ROSS, Jay BALDOCK, Gary HUMMERSTON and Dave ALACHAM resulting in 4 conversions from Danny O’NEIL.

Man of the Match : Garry ‘Ghandi’ HUMMERSTON

The only thing remaining to say is that as much as we found his decisions and rulings difficult to follow, without the Sefton Club Referee 'Peter', we couldn’t have had the game. So thanks to him for turning up.