Ellesmere Port U 13 vs Collegiate U-13– 7th February 2016

Big tall fast lads and mud

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Ellesmere Port U 13 vs Collegiate U-13– 7th February 2016

Squad on the day:-
Forwards:- Sonny, Spanish Leo, Boris, Shamus, Tom, Matty, Big Jack, Calum, Big Dan, Mathew C, Finbar, Luke
Backs:- Jack, Fintan, Dan H, Harrison, Ollie, Sam, Dan C, Anton,

The blue skies and bright sunlight were deceiving with a wicked chilly wind blowing across the huge Ellesmere Port bog, sorry I meant pitch complex. I was pleased to see so many make the treacherous travel from civilisation to “across the water”, and very surprised to see that the mums had actually passed Cheshire Oakes retail village without being sucked in to the shopping heaven for some must have bargains.

Now whenever we play other teams, they always come equipped with a big lad, (BL) or two. Ellesmere Port were no exception with one fine specimen easily constituting two of our players and another blond haired giant reminiscent of the honey monster. Ellesmere Port, though, not only had the tree trunks to provide the weight in the pack they also cunningly had another breed of superhero called the “Big Tall Fast Lad”, (BTFL). Ellesmere Port decided that we were a team to be feared and deployed 2 x BL and 3 x BTFL.

As alluded to the pitch was a trite boggy, but also the biggest pitch I’ve ever seen any junior side play on. I swear I’ve seen pitches shorter than this one was wide. The teams lined up for kick off and whatever pre-match coin was tossed we ended up against the not unsubstantial wind. I’ll keep the details of the three sessions brief

Session 1
5 identical tries by Ellesmere Port’s BTFLs. Gather ball in their half, break the first tackle and leg it down to score.
Session 2
6 identical tries by Ellesmere Port’s BTFLs. Gather ball in their half, break the first tackle and leg it down to score. (no this is not a cut and paste error)
Session 3
As if two sessions and 70 points down wasn’t enough, Ellesmere Port wanted another 20 minutes with us once again against the viciously chilling wind. The boys did though kick a little into life and had their best moments on the ball. Our scrum was holding and pushing, we got close to their line and this time only conceded 2 tries, one to a BL and one to a BTFL.

As with all matches against a better side, the game was going to be tough. I fear that our lack of decent tackling was our biggest let-down and once the BTFL had breached our lines, we had no-one to stop them. Hats off to Forward Finbar who was the last man chasing on a few occasions.

There were some good periods of play, (if a little short) Jack and Fintan combined well together to almost score off a restart, a good move between Calum and Fintan saw us close, Boris made a decent run and I listed crunching tackles by, Fintan, Jack, Calum, Dan H, Luke, Matty and Sam.

If we play them again, we need the narrowest pitch we can find and employ some NFL line backers to protect our nether regions.
Oh yes the score was Lots to them and none to us……

By Aitch