Saturday 27^th February 2010

 

Raging Bull Plate

 

WHITCHURCH 4 XV – 0   WILMSLOW HAWKS – 62     

 

This weekend saw the Hawks playing away at Whitchurch in the 3^rd round of the Raging Bull plate.  Yet again, preparation was not at its most beneficial as players took to the pitch to warm up, 20 minutes before kickoff!

 

However, once the game started, Wilmslow Hawks soon hit their stride, driving Whitchurch back into their 22 before a clearance kick sent the Hawks back into their own half.  From the line out, the ball was driven forward by the pack, eventually coming out to Scrum Half Dan Hargreaves, who, after a couple of sidesteps, burst through the Whitchurch defence to run the ball in from 60 yards, a great individual effort.

 

5 minutes later, this was followed by another try after the ball had worked through the hands of Liam O’Docherty at Fly Half (previously mistakenly written in these reports as O’Donohoe!! …. well, what’s in a surname between friends??), down the line to George Camamile on the wing, who stepped around his opposite winger, to again run the ball in from the Hawk’s own half. After a conversion by Rob Jones, Hawks were leading 12 – Nil.

 

The third try was yet another great individual effort, this time from Fly Half Liam O’Docherty.  The ball was kicked out by Whitchurch No. 10 but Liam pounced on it before anyone else was able to touch the ball, allowing him to take a quick short throw to himself.  He then made a bee line for the Whitchurch line straight though all their confused players who appeared to be unaware the ball was in play, to score under the posts.  Another conversion from Jonesy took the Hawks go to 19 – Nil up.

 

Dan Hargreaves took his turn to get back into the action, side stepping a defender from 2 yards out to go over under the posts again.  Half time, with the game standing at Wilmslow Hawks – 26 …Whitchurch 4 – Nil.

 

From the kick off in the second half, Liam sent the Wilmslow forwards right, then took a short kick off left to the backs, picking up the ball himself as it just crossed the 10 meter line, called for a switch to Ben “Wazza” Warren, dummied, then took the ball all the way in to cross the line to the right of the posts.  Another superb individual try.

 

Then, a big mistake!  Dan broke through the opposition line passed to Wazza, who “accidently” passed the ball to Ben “Benno” Eckersley, giving Ben a very popular try (from 20 meters out, despite what he may have you believe!) and a great reward for all the hard work Ben had once again put into the Hawks game. 

 

Not to be out done, the opposite Flanker, Nigel Brierley, also got in on the act by breaking from a maul and bursting through the Whitchurch defence to score his only try of the day, but 2^nd in 2 weeks.  Might there be a pattern emerging here?  This, alongside some excellent tackling and hard work throughout the game, earned Nigel the Man of the Match award.

 

There followed some pressure from Whitchurch, who, in fairness to them and their situation, kept their heads up and took the game back to Wilmslow, forcing them to defend hard back into the Hawks 22.  Some spirited defence and good rucking and mauling saw the Hawks work their way back to just inside the Whitchurch half when, once again, a flash of excellent rugby saw the ball passed from hand to hand, down the line into the hands of Rick Muckle, who dived over the line in the corner.  Another great team effort with excellent backup and support running.

 

The half Backs, Dan Hargreaves and Liam O’Docherty competed to be top scorer once again, with each of them scoring a try, Liam’s right on the stroke of fulltime, making it 3 tries each and the final score Whitchurch 4 – Nil … Wilmslow Hawks – 62, from 10 tries and 6 conversions.

 

Overall a very good showing and a good clean game, Whitchurch being very generous with their congratulations.  Dick of the Day award goes once again to Aman Sidhu, who appears to be making a habit of turning up after the game has started.  This week’s excuse?  Something about ending up in Wrexham instead of Whitchurch.  I hope he knows there isn’t going to be a prize of a Sat Nav should he become Dick of the Season!!

 

Next round, the Quarter Final, sees the Hawks playing on Easter Saturday, 3^rd April, away against either Sandbach 4 or, their previous year’s nemesis, Chorley 2.