Another glorious morning to play rugby and the kids were keen to impress with Head Coach, Mark, celebrating his 21st birthday again…. Surely not again!

The Oiler’s set out as they meant to go on with an early try from lightning boots Myke flying down the wing. Hoylake, however, came back with a try of their own to suggest the fixture would go head to head. Some great interactions across the mid field though led to more tries for Max, Liam and Noah in the first period taking the score 6-3 as they entered the break.

A lot of hard yards were won in the middle of the field today by Charlie, Matty, James, Stan, Conor and Max to ensure that the ball could be swiftly passed out to create some beautiful passages of play. Liam, Lowther and Noah synced up to switch the play to keep Hoylake guessing. Matthew was a menace at every ruck disrupting the opposition and taking a couple of knocks to the ribcage for his trouble, but he came back fighting. Liam, Noah and Myke added to their tallies in the second period before going in at half-time 10-5 up. Hoylake had a colossal forward who was able to strip the Oiler’s defence down on occasion, but that was to be thwarted with the Oiler’s defence collapsing to the middle of the park to reduce this threat.

The third period saw a confident, if not somewhat bruised Oilers team, take to the field (Stan, Matthew, Max and Conor had all been subject to injury, but thankfully were all well at the final whistle although Max will have a shiner to show for it tomorrow). This was arguably the closest period of the match ending 3-2 in favour of the Oilers. Harry came on to maraud his way to a solo try down the centre of the field and Noah and Myke continued to add to their personal and team tallies.

Heading into the final period 13-7 up, the U12’s were starting to consistently secure the ball in the rucks with swift distribution to the backs and across the pitch to expose a tiring Hoylake. Liam and Lowther worked hard to gain some space, Harry and Noah scored their final tries whilst Matty, making his debut, used his strength to score his first try in an Oiler’s jersey which was met with huge cheer by his teammates and a big smile on his face. Matthew’s grit and determination at the breakdown and his tenacious attack saw him rewarded with a try at the end making the final score 18-8.

The winner today was teamwork; every teammate played their part, pitch awareness, hard hits, thoughtful passing. An excellent game to watch. Well done boys, and thanks to Liam, Steve and Mark for giving up your time for the club.

Man of the Match went to Matty for a tough shift in the middle of the field and TREDS winner was Charlie Mc who kept fighting and working hard the whole game through.