Sat 19 Oct 2019
Winnington Park were fortunate to have a strong squad again with 21 players although the forward line up looked like they had never found the salad bar in the all you can eat buffet, which was a stark contrast to the Mossley Hill team who looked young and fresh faced.
The conditions suited park with the ground being very boggy and the ball greasy ensuring that the game was never to be fast and expansive. That said that didn’t stop park thinking they could throw the ball around like Japan and try and offload in every other tackle causing a lot of unforced errors in the first half.
It was clear that Parks pack would be dominant with a couple of early scrums wining possession and a few mauls from the line out making significant yardage. The scoring was opened up by Aidan (Not Aran, Aaron or Aron) who for once ran at space and not the man and dived over near the posts to convert the try. The game turned scrappy for a little while and Mossly Hill scored a penalty for a player swearing, when quizzed about this he was worried it might offend the spectators, at a full capacity 3rd team pitch at Burrows hill.
Park re-asserted their dominance up front punching forward gradually when Park was award a penalty and some quick thinking with a tap and go got a Mossly player sin bined. A further tap and go led to the best try of the game where Aran (not Aidan or Aron) would have run the length of the pitch had the try line not been two meters ahead of him.
With the advantage of rolling subs and a strong bench fresh legs where utilised and Park gradually turned the screw on their opponents in the second half, more tries came from Bear, Barry, Jim, Will, Macca and Mike. Jim’s try a worthy of noting that despite there being none in front of him he couldn’t have travelled further as the quicksand had well and truly taken his legs away.
The score sheet is testament to how well the team played together and made it difficult to determine a man of the match, although DOD belongs to Macca for his cynical challenge in the “red zone” that got him a yellow.
Honourable mentions go to Brad who played one of his best games for the team and narrowly missed the conversion between the 2nd pitch 100meters away, but it was his first conversion!
Kyle and Ed Wilkinson also had one of their best games in a park jersey showing pace in the run up to a number of tries, Rhys and Rick Hall made plenty of hard yards, Rick Shaw stood in for Aidan at 10 when he got sucked in to the contact area. Aidan displayed flawless tackling technique and punching well above his weight bringing player down and finally Tony did well to keep his ribs after a hospital pass from Bear.
It was good to see Park putting phases together and playing with some continuity and if we can kee the majority of the squad there is not reason why we can compete for the top of the table. November is a critical month with a game every week so please make yourself available as much as possible during November.
