Heaton Moor Under 13's win on the road again!

Heaton Moor under 13's were on the road again yesterday morning as they travelled the short distance down the M60 to Sale to play at their Carrington training facility.

Heaton Moor took a squad of 21 players buoyed by their previous great win at Liverpool St Helens the week before, so confidence was high as the game kicked off.

Early on both teams battled hard to establish supremacy with some big tackles, one huge hit in particular from Captain Sam Shepherd resulted in Sales biggest lad taking no further part! which must have given a big boost to our boys! As the first half progressed it became apparent that the forward training session the previous Friday night run by Chris had clearly paid dividends as our pack, despite being physically smaller and with Jake Barrett hooking superbly started to win virtually every scrum which provided a great platform for scrum half Cameron Kilbride to move the ball along the line quickly and our backs started to make a lot of territory and push sale back.

One flowing move resulted in Asa bursting through but perhaps made the wrong decision to cut back inside when he had a two man over lap and the chance when begging, but the warning signs were there for Sale.

It was from another such move that centre Joe Kilbride received the ball and started to run across the pitch before cutting into a gap, bursting for the line and unselfishly off loading a pass to fly half Will Smith who was supporting superbly and went over for the first try. Sam made a great effort at the resulting kick but it just missed from near the touchline. Heaton Moor continued to dominate as the game wore on and shortly before half time another flowing backs move resulted with Joe again receiving the ball and as the scrambled defence started moving to the right as winger Dominic Rafferty cleverly held his position out wide, Joe darted back inside the cover and sprinted in for a great team try.

It was great to see Joe's confidence returning and his first half performance was easily his best for some time. Right on half time the mood was summed up as Sale made a rare break away only for the lad to be clattered with a massive tackle from full back Evan Coffey that was felt on the side lines! It was without question our best first half team performance of the season.

Half time score 10-0

With so many players Chris made a raft of changes at half time to ensure game time for everyone. Special mention here for a number of our lads who played at some point for Sale who only has 13 players on the day including Jacob, Alex, Dominic, Will Green and Babak. Whether the changes momentarily affected our concentration, but as the second half kicked off a ball was left to bounce and was picked up by a Sale player who ran in and with some sloppy missed tackles the player was allowed to run in and score in the corner. Something we need to learn is to switch on immediately at a restart.

For a few minutes Sale's tails were up and we had to stand firm and defend but with Sam tackling everything that moved and Will Smith, Asa, Jacob, Declan, Dylan, Joe, Josh and Cameron all following suit with big tackles Heaton Moor quickly re asserted their authority. Mid way through the half Heaton Moor were awarded a scrum just over half way. Another dominate scrum resulted in clean ball which Sam picked up from number eight and bull dozed his way through a couple of half hearted tackles to gallop to the line and score to restore our two try advantage.

As the game wore on it was great to see other of our newer players contributing with Babak, Jacob, Dan, Bob, Stephen, Josh and Declan all doing sterling if unglamorous work in the pack to create the platform for the backs to rum more and more. Tom Hodgson had a great game on the wing and made three or four great runs from his own half gaining valuable ground and more importantly boosting his own confidence.

With minutes to go Cameron rounded of a really good performance at scrum half with a try of his own. Heaton Moor were awarded a scrum about 10 meters out in the centre of the pitch and as we secured more clean ball, Cam darted as quick as a flash, gave a little show and go to the covering defence and scampered in for a try under the posts.

Without doubt this was our best all round team performance of the season, highlighted by the scrum domination and the great movement and passing of our backs. Great preparation for our final group game in the Black sticks cup competition next Sunday at home to Southport! More of the same please boys.

Man of the match for the forwards was Sam Shepherd & for the backs it was Tom Hodgson.