The futures bright...

With a changed squad from last weeks cup stalemate due to various poor excuses and a few lingering injuries, and the trophy lying forgotten in the bag, we took 16 boys to take on the Cheshire cup finalists in sunny Wilmslow.

Ten minutes to kickoff and it was looking like the mighty Josh Padmore would be thrust into the front row, not a pleasant thought for any opposition loose head. Fortunately Oliver McKeown made it to the pitch on time, Damo bitterly complaining about the woodland hike across Cheshire to reach the pitch.

For once we seem to have devised some warm ups that stops the usual malaise from infecting the boys as they start a game. As we kicked off that forlorn hope was dashed as an unforced error and two quick scrums in the bolton 22 resulted in a 7 point deficit as the massive number 8 crashed over after two strong tackles from Joel Matthews filed to halt the blue juggernaut.

After last seasons hammering it wasn't entirely unexpected, but it didn't look quite as grim as the score suggested. The boys were taking the game and opponents in their stride, and a massive hit by the Ginger Ninja on his opposite number was a joy to see. From a breakdown prop forward Sean Carragher made a quick break down the blind side as he spotted the winger still recovering from his impromptu chiropractic courtesy of Joel. Now Sean has pace, but he's not that keen on 70 metres at the best of time, never mind with a winger, centre and full back chasing him to the line. Away he went, begging for Lewis and Myles to catch up and take a pass, but to no avail, so he had to flatten the full back and score.

This was no slouch opposition, and stung into action they threw everything at the lads. Captain for the day Seb Donnelly, Myles Garth , Joel and 5 stone Al Harris made several wide out tackles to apply pressure on the wilmslow attacks. It took some great kicks from the Wilmslow 10 to break the line, making it 10-7 at the break.

The belief was growing in the boys and they could sense they were in with a chance. Typically we buggered up a kickoff though to put ourselves on the wrong end of a 17-7 scoreline. In years gone bye that would have been game over, but even though Jake Rimmer looked as bad tempered as his old man, there was no need to tell the lads to stick to their game plan and it would all work out. And work out it did, Jake had started to believe that he could run the show against the Wilmslow elite, and he attacked with vision to use Seb as decoy and put the Garth Beast into a small gap. 17-12 and all to play for.

Then disaster struck and Sean went down with a poorly knee, With Tom McNulty off with a bad knock that left us with 14 boys. Jaime Lambert went into the front row while Sean was getting a plaster from his daddy to mend his knee. In the ensuing confusion, Wilmslow showed their usual style and pace to score two tries out wide and pull away 27-12. There were tears of frustration in the eyes of some boys in red, but also a glint in the eyes of Josh Padmore, Seb Donnelly, Lewis Picton and mighty mouse Piers Skeels Caldwell.

Jake started to attack the line and Josh was hammering through the blue line with five or six wilmslow boys hanging on for grim death. the penalty count was going our way with desperate Wilmslow boys throwing themselves into rucks to slow the red tide down. Myles and Seb worked some great interplay to send captain Donnelly over to pull the score back yet again.

Still going strong with two minutes to go (this can't be right - attacking at the death to close the deficit !!) another attack deep into the Wilmslow half was rebuffed and a large dose of pushing and shoving between the two teams resulted in the coaches coming on to prevent some split juice and broken biscuits. The ref decided it was a good point to call the game to a close, leaving a disappointed set of boys, but a very happy set of coaches and parents to return to the bar for a case of Wilmslows finest burgers and beer.

Yes, I guess it was a defeat, and we need to learn how to close down these games. That will come with time and a stable team, The performance of Piers and Lewis in the loose needs a special mention, both were a continual thorn in the side of the opposition back row and half backs, to the point where Piers was warned by the ref for being "nearly off side".

Manchester next week, and a chance to keep the momentum going, lets try and get a win please.