This weekend saw Manchester split in half, one team stayed at home to play Altrincham Kersal whilst the other team played at Wilmslow against Wilmslow and Lymm.

The trip to Wilmslow, whilst last minute, proved to be very worthwhile. Rob and Dave took an eager squad three miles down the road made up of Ashwin, Daoud, Joe C, Joe K, Ethan, Oliver, Sergio, Kaya and Seb. Four games awaited the boys on the larger pitch format which looked enormous by comparison to last years!

Game one was a narrow defeat 6 to 5 but saw great tries from Ethan Joe C, Daoud, Ashwin and Joe K. Wilmslow whilst victorious were rattled.
On came match 2 and the boys had their game faces on. Tries came thick and fast from Joe C (x4) with runs into the top corner, Aswin and Joe K. Sergio made some powerful runs and was rewarded with an assist. Score was 6:3 –our boys were feeling confident.

A harder third game with some of Wilmslow’s larger boys brought yet another victory for the tourists with a brace of tries for Ashwin and one each for Oliver and Joe C. The game saw some fabulous support play with one Wilmslow player left without a tag belt after an ‘enthusiastic’ try stopping tackle from Seb and a blissful passage of play culminating in a fabulous offload from Oliver to Ashwin down the wing for a try. Sideline comments from the Wilmslow parents described our boys as a very tidy side indeed.

Three down, and two in the bag, on came game four; Ashi’s dander was well and truly up and he added another four to his tally, Kaya continued with his elusive runs, leaving the opposition standing still, whilst Joe K added his third of the meeting. The boys had brought home victory in what has to be one of the best series of matches we have seen them play. Final score Wilmslow 15, Manchester 20. Men of the match were Ashwin for scoreline and Seb for tagging. The boys made us all very proud.

The team who stayed at home played well together and the passing before they were tagged was better than in previous weeks, Altrincham only had five players, so we lent them two players for each game and it was pleasing to see the boys volunteer to play without making a fuss. In fact, in the first game Alexander picked up the ball and nearly broke away for a try!

In the first game, Erin and Noah got into good spaces, Harry and Joel did well with tagging. Ishy and Sam were running around looking for gaps whilst Fin marked his debut with a blistering run.

The game was evenly matched with Altrincham being a bit more physical and having a couple of tries disallowed for not grounding the bal. Manchester forced a turnover with their tagging but lost the ball a few times due to dropped catches. However, we managed to put together a good move to secure a 4-4 draw with the last play!

In the second game, Joel and Ishy both scored two tries, with Ishy being especially good at supporting Sam on his runs and being on hand for when he was tagged. Noah was getting better at keeping hold of the ball, Alexander and Harry were doing well running with the ball through the centre. Max played for the other team, getting involved and urging them to dive for tries. They had two good runners who were able to evade our tackles and going into the last play we thought that it would be a draw. Unfortunately, we ran out into touch and Altrincham went up the other end to score and win 7-5.

The team played well together and will be even better once we learn to spread out more. Erin, Finn, and Harry all benefitted from the more experienced players around him and Alexander was man of the match.