The under 7 squad made a fantastic competitive debut at the weekend putting out two teams at the Manchester Festival and taking another team to Macclesfield RUFC.
At the Manchester Festival the two Wilmslow 7-a-side squads really stood out. The A team was very unlucky not to progress out of their group drawing 3 games. They conceded last minute tries in two of their games that on another day may not have been given. The results were a great credit to the squad in a group packed with teams from big clubs which were only fielding one team in the tournament.
The stand out performance came from the B squad who coped with injuries and party calls to key players and still went on to win the tournament, with an impressive 7-4 win in the final.
After a late withdrawal of another team, the pools were hastily re-drawn with Wilmslow B squad in a pool with just Trafford MV and Manchester, who we now had to play twice.
The first game against Manchester was a tense affair, with the lead ebbing and flowing between two very evenly matched sides. The Wilmslow boys were a little rusty to begin with, running into touch and throwing the ball away in contact being their main woes.
However, their try scoring quickly kicked in with Will Mitchell, Alastair Livingstone and Fergus Gregg stepping their way to the line to make a 5-5 draw.
Trafford MV next, and the boys were steadily improving, particularly in their defence, with Laurie Lee and Paddy Murray simply outstanding in hunting down the ball carrier and ripping tags off. This game was won in another tight affair, with a 5-4 victory to Wilmslow. This win was only marred by the loss of star player Daniel Jones, who limped off with an earlier (football!) injury.
Another tight affair, with some scorching runs down the flank by Will “Lightning Bolt” Mitchell and some awesome running by Joe Skidmore down the middle led to us drawing 5-5 all in the dying seconds. A quick burst by Alastair Livingstone, passed on to Will down the left flank got us a fantastic score in the final seconds for victory. But no, it wasn’t to be. The timekeeper on the sidelines adjudged that time was up and the ref disallowed the score. Disappointing for the boys as they were worth a win, but that left all to do against Trafford MV.
The final pool game was late, and even with tired legs the boys really stuck at it, Jack Ward and Reece Crossan simply outstanding in their defence, with Reece narrowly missing out on a fantastic score after some great running. Another win, 5-4 this time, to a good side from Trafford who matched us evenly throughout.
This win meant Wilmslow topped their pool and were through to the Cup semi-final against Vale of Lune. A tight game here with the Wilmslow boys prevailing 5-4 over a well drilled Vale side that had some great runners. This sadly saw us loose Laurie Lee from the team, though he had a good excuse, it was for his own birthday party!
An excited and determined Wilmslow side met a great side from Wigan, who played the game with great spirit and no lack of skill either. The Wigan boys struggled to break down the Wilmslow defence and the Wilmslow attack was again fantastic. Will, Alastair and Fergus scoring a total of 7 tries for a well deserved victory over a brave Wigan side.
Our very tired and very happy boys were then presented with their first trophy and their individual medals by one of the Sale squad and our fantastic hosts from Manchester.
This is a member post by Neil Hughes.
