Wet and Wild by the Seaside.

New Brighton 5 - Crewe and Nantwich 40.

On a wet and windy day on the Wirral peninsula, the team came up against a historical Northern rugby powerhouse, with a club house full of reminders of yesterdays glory from 1960's - All Black shirts to an honors board, with distinguished names such as James Patrick Quinn (New Brighton, England and British Lions).

Crewe & Nantwich started with a much changed line up from the one that was victorious 2 weeks ago in Shropshire, bringing a number of players into key positions from the bench, and giving others a chance to look at the game from a different slot.

From the kick off we knew we were up against it, not only did the elements making handling tricky but we also conceded numerous penalties leading to us not being able to get a foot hold in the game for the first quarter. Our first chance came from a set piece; something the coaching team has been working hard on for the last couple of months .We created enough legal pressure at the scrum to put the NB scrum half in a bit of trouble; he failed to control the ball at the back of a retreating pack - Ben pounced, kicked the ball through and showed great pace to gather the ball and score a great try against the run of play. Logan converted from out wide. 0 - 7.

The general state of play continued, C&N struggled to adapt to the referees interpretation of the Break down, Scrum, Line out or offside line, but in the moments they did get solid ball ,looked dangerous.Harley, Ben and Tom working well as a new 8,9,10 combo, Ellis, Joe and Ollie carrying well.The next try came from Logan, following good control and distribution from Ben and Tom, a great break from Jacob ,who found Logan in support. and finished with aplomb in the corner, his conversion fell just short in what proved to be his only miss of the day.

Jacob scored next after good work by the forwards to go through multi phases; he broke the line through the centers and ran the ball in from half way. conversion slotted 0 - 19.
The next try came from an unopposed line out 15 mtrs from the NB try line the forwards rucked well, taking short balls into contact through Dan Mk and Dan M, Pete picked and went, causing confusion in the NB ranks who just managed to scramble to stop him scoring. Max was on hand to take a lovely offload to score, Conversion successful. 0 - 26. Half time....

The second half started in much the same way as the first: handing proving difficult, expansive rugby in short supply due to wet balls, unfortunately we didn't have the option to have the roof closed as they do in Japan. We were probably a little guilty of playing to the conditions too much by keeping the game a power one up front. Once we did manage to get the ball out wide, Jarrad was having a great time now that he had been unleashed from the bench and he scored the first try after the break after good work by Max, Conversion knocked over 0 - 33.
Dan M scored the final C&N try of the day, Logan spotted the NB winger had push infield, he then sent a lovely cross field kick to Dan to touch down in the corner, Conversion made 0 - 40.

NB scored the final try of the game following a succession of penalties which gave them ever improving field position, eventually leading to a fantastically well deserved score for the home team.

Lots of positives:every player was brilliant, played really well in trying circumstances. Things to work on, but the first 2 games of the season will stand us in good stead for the rest of the season.

Thanks to New Brighton for the game and the warm hospitality.

Try scorers - Ben x 1, Logan x 1, Jacob x 1, Max x 1, Jarrad x 1, Dan M x 1
Conversions - Logan x 5.