Liverpool Collegiate U-15 V West Park – Friendly

Sunday 14th December 2014
Score 5 - 19

Tries:- Jamarl

Conv:- none

Just like a Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen inspired winter wonderland, Liverpool Collegiate rugby pitches, were wet, muddy and devoid of xmas cheer.

Last game of the season against another one of those tough teams that we never seem to be able to beat. West Park arrived with a large travelling squad and proceeded to run drills and training moves like they knew what they were doing Ominous!

Our Ref Rob arrived to bring colour to the otherwise grey landscape, dressed in a bright orange rugby top that made him look somewhat like a xmas tangerine. If I’d have been wearing the same top, I’d have looked more like a Halloween pumpkin!

The game kicked off and Liverpool immediately went on the offensive, pushing back West Park and retaining ball for almost the first 5 minutes. The game ebbed and flowed a little before our dominance showed and Jamarl went on a strong run down the right wing to score. Jamarl’s try was even more impressive, when you consider his rugby boots were held together with white electricians tape. Our try, unfortunately had the effect of waking West Park up and they soon responded with a try and conversion of their own. We battled for the remainder of the half, but weren’t good enough to stop them scoring again before the whistle blew.

The second half was a proper winter rugby battle, featuring mainly the forwards. The rain came down, the pitch became slippery and muddy and the forwards didn’t seem to want to trust the backs. This tussle between packs was finally won by the yellow and green West Park menace, who after some sustained pressure capitalised on a slippy ball which pinged around like a bar of soap before finally being grounded by a WP player. The game ended with West Park once again victors. But they had to work hard for it!

My very soggy stats sheet tells me that shy retiring Kyle had most individual tackles with 6 and Kieran had most metres made with 44. Kuba had most individual breaks, (usually through the heart of the opposition’s forwards), with 8 and Jamarl had the longest individual run of about 20 metres , (forward metres , not cross field metres count). If the pack as a whole was one person, they would have clocked up dozens of tackles. Very impressive seeing one, two and three players at a time taking down the opposition.

A tough game in slippy conditions sees us finish 2014 with about as many games won as lost. But Liverpool Collegiate U-15s are a far better squad and teams, (remember the team is changing each week), than at any time in the last two and a half years, since I’ve been watching.

I’m ashamed to say that one of our loyalist and usually best behaved members of the squad received the first red card of the season from the ref. No, it wasn’t one of the players, but Jasmine, (unofficial club mascot), who was sent off by Rob for running onto the pitch after her ball during the game, (how many games match ban is that ?)

A nod as always to those not playing, but coming down to watch :- Matty F, Alex M, Ed, Josh Obeng.

By Aitch