With a 06:45 start to a Sunday morning and an under experienced Merseyside Junior Rugby team travelling down to RAF Cosford, it’s no wonder hopes weren’t high. Not to mention the three strong welsh sides and the hybrid Staffs West Mercia team that was a mixture of two wings. We were in for a tough battle.
But battle we did. With Corporal Ireland as captain and Sergeant Evans as pack leader we defeated Number One Welsh Wing without conceding a try. With unexpected points on the board the morale of the team was up, which was probably why we went on to win the next game against Staffs & West Mercia without conceding a try. The teamwork was excellent, piling on the points in only a 14 minute game.
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| Piling on the points: Merseyside Wing seen in black driving forward |
After a hearty lunch in the large canteen, it was onto the two games against Number Two Welsh wing and Number Three Welsh wing. Number Three Welsh proved to be a worthy opponent, because it took the Merseyside team over five minutes to score a try! Sloppy play and some odd decisions from the referees hampered our progress, yet we still managed to win without conceding any points. Could the first rugby trophy for Merseyside wing be on the cards?
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| Preparing for a Line out throw |
The final game against Number Two Welsh Wing would make or break the dream. But it was all going so well. As we practiced the manoeuvres on the side line the oppositions players were dropping like flies with injuries. With news of the Girls triumph on the netball the whole side became determined to make it a clean sweep for Merseyside Wing. We had to win to ensure first place in the tournament, we had to pull out all the stops, we had to give the best performance of our careers.
And we did. Scoring approximately 22-0 (I lost count after 15) we triumphed over the number two welsh wing who barely saw any action in out half. This made us the first Merseyside team to bring home the rugby trophy. Everyone was ecstatic, the bragging right were ours (it’s worth mentioning it was St. David’s day that day)! Gold medals all round and a well deserved sleep on the coach home. A job well done.
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| Merseyside Wing Rugby Championss: Cadet Gibson, Lawrence and Windle of 90 seen to the left. |
Cadets Lawrence, Gibson and Windle with the hard earned trophy:
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| 90 Speke's Rugby Stars: Cdt John Windle, Cdt Andrew Gibson and Cdt Lawrence (with trophy) |
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