Bury 20 - 38 Warrington

Ahead of the game, a fixture misunderstanding meant that Bury were expecting Warrington on 9th December (we were at Sandbach), and in our absence they awarded themselves a 100-NIL win on their website, so it was going to be interesting to see how the real matches panned out.

Both clubs had enough to field two teams, allowing 4 matches to be played. Warrington's teams were nominally 'A' and 'B'.

Warrington A: Adam, Archie, Cameron, Charlie B, Charlie C, Gareth, Josh, Stephen.
Warrington B: Ben, Declan, Eddie, Gregor, Joe, Max, Michael, Sam S

Warington 'A' 12 - 8 Bury 'A'
Tries: Adam 4, Charlie B 3, Stephen 3, Archie, Josh
Bury kicked off and scored without a tag being made, a familiar story for this Warrington outfit. Thankfully the attacking skills were to the fore, and an improving defence put Warrington in control 7-4 by half time. The second half continued in the same vein with Adam, Charlie B and Stephen making hay.

Warrington 'B' 9 - 1 Bury 'B'
Tries: Michael 5, Ediie 2, Max B, Sams S
A truly dominant performance by a well drilled Warrington side who put an inexperienced Bury team under tremendous pressure with some aggressive tagging. Michael was beneficiary of so much ball with 5 tries but this win was down to the defensive effort. Bury found themselves back pedalling so often that on 3 occassions their players attempted to score behind their own try line.

Warrington 'A' 7 - 6 Bury 'B'
Tries: Charlie B 4, Charlie W 2, Adam
Warrington were out of sorts in the first half, with the defence in tatters as an improving Bury side made the most of their possession to lead 3-2 just before half time, although 2 late tries by Charlie B edged Warrington in front on half time. A stern talking to by Mark M during the break did see an improvement in the defensive shape and effort, with Charlie B and Adam leading the way. Charlie B's efforts were rewarded with 4 tries, and Charlie W bagged a nice brace as Warrington just edged a close match.

Warrington 'B' 10 - 5 Bury 'A'
Tries: Ben 3, Max 2, Michael 2, Sam 2, Gregor
The B team continued in fine form in their second match and the win was never in doubt. The defence was impressive once again forcing several turnovers. The tries were shared around, although Ben shone late on to end with a hat-trick. An impressive morning's work was complete.

All of the matches were played in really good sprits, and the players of both clubs looked to have enjoyed themselves, with great supoport being provided by the parents.

The Warrington coaches had been stressing the importance of defence in recent weeks, and for most of the matches it seemed to have been taken on board, and the Bury coaching crew paid tribute by saying it was the best defensive performance they have encountered this season.

Net up we welcome Wirral to Walton Lea, and we'll need our defence to be in similar form if we're to overturn the defeats we suffered at Wirral in November - it should be a thrilling contest!