The u16's and their Wilmslow counterparts both put in one hell of a shift this morning in an entertaining and enjoyable mornings rugby. Despite some early doubt as to the playability of the pitch due to the covering of frost it was deemed soft enough underneath to get the game on. With several lads from both sides on county duty and with an increasing injury list we played 13 a side (no flankers) ensuring that those present would have to work hard to cover the pitch.

There was certainly no shirking in the early exchanges from either side, we span the ball about utilising the extra space but somehow found ourselves forced back into our own half defending an aggressive Wilmslow attack. We defended well and 5 minutes in managed to turn the ball over and find Henry on an overlap, as he shot off down the wing he nicely stepped inside the covering fullback to go in under the posts and continue his recent good form. Cam S assumed kicking duties and converted.

We kind of lost our way for the remainder of this half as we kept looking for the wide players without securing the ball first. More than once Wilmslow intercepted looping passes out wide. On 10 minutes they crossed for the first of their 3 first half tries. On 20 minutes they had ripped the ball and kicked into the corner with the same speedy winger scoring the second and just before the half time whistle they drove over from short range to go in 7-17 up. Despite the half time scoreline we'd played some good rugby in patches, our line out was superb, 3 times we stole the Wilmslow ball thanks to Suty's excellent lineout coaching!

The half time message was take the ball in, earn the right to spin it out. This worked, almost from the kick off CJ showed his dancing feet to break the Wilmslow line and with just the fullback to beat he found Cam Sutcliffe (who had just recovered enough from a kick in the nether regions to return to the pitch) in support to score in the corner, Suty converted his own try.

Two minutes later we took the lead thanks to Lightning who showed his pace to go over. At this point one of the Wilmslow players went off injured so we took a player off to make it 12 a side. We were cruising at this point, Joe M, Sam W, KB and Riley were superb, they took the ball in time-after-time, looked after it and counter rucked superbly turning the ball over more than once.
CJ extended the lead to 29-17 half way through the second half and at this point it looked like we would win comfortably. Wilmslow had other ideas though and as we switched off a bit they came more into it, utilising there big forwards to eat up territory. We found ourselves defending the line against a bit of an onslaught and to be fair we defended brilliantly, with 12 a side there where gaps but the lads covered the pitch as if there lives depended on it.
The pressure eventually told though when they charged down a clearing kick on our line to score from a yard out. They then added another with 5 minutes to go following a 20 odd set of phases on our line to create a nervy last 5 minutes with the score at 29-27, it was anybodies to win.
The tension was palpable and the celebrations when Sam Whalley pounced on a kick through the Wilmslow line to score on the last play showed just how close the game was.

A brilliant game, not our best for periods of it, but some superb individual performances and an amazing work rate from all the lads to grind out the win. A big shout to all the Wilmslow lads who also put in a shift, Ben and Steve for refereeing, Dan and Mike E.

Next week Littleborough away.