Manchester hunt down the Tigers

I am sure it was an absolute fluke that our coaching team, that so bravely stood up to SP Tigers at the Southport Festival, began to dwindle in numbers by this morning because of very legitimate excuses reasons.
So it was with pre-match day nerves (sweaty palms, a sickie tummy and a complete lack of sleep the night before) that Sam found himself sole coach for the day with nothing more than the promise of a bag of balls (mostly inflated) and a team sheet (half finished with appropriate wine or tear stains attached…hard to tell, really).
A change of tactics was required quickly and a cunning plan hatched by the seconded no. 2 coach (young master James Breckell who bunked off U16 training to watch his old man sweat his way through this tricky session in the hope of a laugh or two at his expense!).
The plan was simple – let’s make the big kids run around a lot until they tire and then we could run over them as they fell. Yes - we were going to use the old Scotch invention of Rugby 7’s to outfox an intimidating English side…and it almost worked.
SP Tigers agreed to three halves of 15 minutes (yeah – got them at that one didn’t we! – who’s laughing now), rolling subs, full pitch and contested scrums. The scrums being the one thing that gave the Tigers a huge advantage, along with the dodgy ref, as their front row were all 6’ 2’’, well into paying off their mortgages and in some cases onto second marriages.
When faced with the additional fact that the Referee was young, still in training and from SP (so we did suffer a little from knock on’s not being noticed, more hands in the ruck than at a nail bar and the most crooked put-in’s to the scrum) every one of our boys did the club proud.
The first third saw a strong Manchester side facing the opposition with a mean looking front row of Paul Winpenny, Jack Marsden and Taha Ahmed who held their own well with Eddie Williamson and Myles Monaghan in the centre / wing, Elliot Ashton Bryant an impressively aggressive no.9 and Charles Breckell at 10.
Manchester were the first to score across the line with Elliot A.B. leading the way with a second and third thumping tries from Charles B. leading to a shock and awe campaign that put SP on the back foot despite their larger size.
Could we be giant slayers of the first order?
As the tries kept coming I couldn’t actually remember in what order so apologies if I have missed one of yours (team stats below…) I will need to summarise each of the thirds together for ease…
Charles B. asked to drop kick the conversions and nailed each one with quiet confidence; a tactic that SP also followed on with and the kicking tee had a quiet day off.
With a quick comeback by the Tigers and players beginning to tire, rolling subs changed the dynamics of the team. But the tries kept coming on both sides…Manchester won the first third and had scored more tries in this session than across the whole of last season
There were fantastic set pieces by Manchester with great offloading from all the backs, great rucking and some impressive ball carrying. The forwards took on the challenge of a full pitch and 7’s conditions very well.
The Coaches prize for best try set up on the day goes to the two Joes; Joe Anderson had a fantastic set piece up on the wing with Joe Wright-Kennedy driving the ball forward by ten yards into the capable hands of Taha A. allowing him to score his first, of many I am sure, for the club. It was an impressive display of power and I think the try belongs to all three although attributed to Taha A.
Paul W. is making great progress as an aggressive tackler and all round player contributing to many a set up for the team and also for crossing the line today but having to see his try disallowed. He was ably supported/ subbed by Nathan Hutchinson who stopped at least two SP try attempts with great tackles (I think we told him the opposition were running with chocolate in their pockets that he could claim if he took them down!) We were lucky to have a rolling replacement of the front row over the course of play without too many differences on show.
Jack Marsden is the gentleman of the team; quiet, unassuming yet deadly in the rucks when he used his power to clear out the opposition with a near 100% success rate and was happy just to run into the opposition often knocking them flying. No score today but at the heart of the team in terms of performance and setting the rest of the guys up. Great work Jack…
My Coaches Player of today goes to Elliot A.B. who is the scariest person on the field yet the nicest off it. He was like a Tasmanian Devil on the pitch, scoring at least three tries in difficult circumstances included a fantastic deflection from an SP kicker on their 5m line, I think off his face, before scoring. Despite being injured three times to different parts of his leg he kept asking to go back on and play and always with a smile on his face – the secret hard man of the side!
It was a pleasure to see Luke Davenport return to the club for a proper game as he came to us from something called “football”. To his credit he did fantastic work on the wing and produced two tries for the club with a graceful show of skill and manouvering. I wouldn’t expect anything less from an impressive lacrosse player but nice to know you can still play proper games that don’t require sticks etc..
Hanuf Khalid gave his usual high standard of rugby at no 9 with great offloading, far more pace than is needed even for 7’s and strong communication on the pitch.
Bobby McDonald (who wins the Coaches surname of the match just for sounding a bit Scottish!) approached the game with confidence and easily showed the crowd why he will be one to watch for the future – he is fast on his feet, a great ball carrier with natural technique and turned two opportunities into tries as he powered his way through gaps in the SP defense. One thing to work on is expanding Bobby’s knowledge of other positions to allow him to start to develop his rugby senses and to play across the forwards and backs as he grows…
Myles Monaghan had a Jekyll and Hyde approach to the game today with, on one hand as Dr. Jekyll, a fantastic range of talent on show. With graceful athleticism he took full opportunity of SP mistakes and planted two firm tries for us. He is a skilled player when running with the ball in two hands and refraining from the Mr. Hyde circus tricks he has developed in recent months (the one handed blind pop passes, running with ball in one hand and fancy kicks etc.). I thought he was kindly administering first aid to one poor SP player as he frantically pumped on their chest to revive them after a tackle before I realised he was hitting him! Gentleman that he is though, a well received apology to the opposing coach led to him coming back to form after burying the Mr. Hyde character. A strong leader on the pitch and holding the newer lads in good positions…Well done Myles for the very good bits.
Finally, Eddie Williamson gave a considered and thoughtful Captain’s performance today. Walking off an ankle injury he was fully involved in all aspects of play until being made to come off the field; he had already notched up at least two tries of his own to set out his stall for this season. He communicated very well across this team and held them together through the rolling subs etc. His aggression was well placed and tackle rate high resulting in the set up of other tries for his teammates.
Mistakes were only really made with the coach suddenly being told by his number 2, James, that the side was at one point imbalanced with 5 forwards and two backs playing at one time in the second third. This slight oversight from the coach, who worried too much that all players were getting game time, allowed SP to run through our lines with the 6’2’’ “fast one” and they held the winning margin after that.
Not quite giant slayers but a fairytale start to the season…all agreed that if nothing else we should enter the Manchester 7’s competition at the end of this year.

SP Tigers – 95
Manchester – 77
Tries:
Elliot A.B. 3
Charles B. 2
Myles Monaghan 2
Eddie Williamson 2
Luke Davenport 1
Bobby MacDonald 1
Paul Winpenny 1 (Disallowed)
Taha Ahmed 1
Full support for all tries by every player on the team today, without exception