The Port boys had inflicted a 13-7 lesson in rugby on the aspiring Hoylake lads less than 2 months before. Would this be more of the same or had the penny dropped and the red, green and whites taken heed of a need to respect the ball, work as a team, shut down the big lads and stop the fast lads quickly.
With clearing skies, soft underfoot conditions and an ample sized pitch only good rugby or the best team on the day could be the winner. Having won the toss Port tapped off and their big lads charged into their work with expectation in their eyes, only to be met by a resolute defence full of enthusiastic double and even triple-boy tackles. Sam, Leon and Liam were to the fore in repelling the opening stanza and getting a turnover from a 7 tackle count on the bemused Port attackers. Turning defence into attack James finished off a great team try with the first try of the day.
A seemingly undaunted Port came back to half way only to be met by a further brick wall defence, with Archie and Reece joining Sam in the tackle-fest. A resulting spilt ball saw James pounce Jock Hobbs-like on the loose pill, feed George and set him off on the first of his long striding runs, reminiscent of Jeff Wilson in his hey-day, that took him the length of the field and a stirring touch down. A third tap off by Port saw an unerring pattern repeated, with some mouth-guard jarring defence and relentless pressure clocking up another 7 tackles and the ball returned to Hoylake with captain Leon leading the charge into Port territory. But not to be outdone the Port defence held firm and were rewarded with a turnover and swung back into attack mode. But as with Jock Hobbs being surpassed by Michael Jones, James displayed a new level of skill sets to scoop up some loose ball on his own line, pierce the would-be Port tackles and outsrip the chasers to score at the other end of the pitch. 3 unanswered tries to Hoylake!
Port showed their metal and despite some strong tackling from Hoylake they brought some respectability to the scoreboard, with a well worked try before Hoylake ended the half with a great team effort and a hat-trick to James. The 3 unwise men coaching staff were fullsome in their praise at this half time break, sadly lacking in any water due to the squads' water bottles having being "acquired" by a suspected other group and hoping that the opposition coaches didn't have a cunning plan to stem the Hoylake tide. Could it get any better than 4-1!
Well dear reader it did!! To cut a long read a bit shorter the second half saw 6 tries to Hoylake and none to Port. Coming off the bench, and with his parents having not been distracted from the delights of Karaoke this week, Rudi cut the defence to ribbons on several occasions, scored a great try and pulled off some classic cover tackles - step aside Robbie Deans in the pomp of his playing days. With the appearanc of his dad on the side-line, obviously responding to a call to investigate who has acquired the missing water bottles, Reece scored 2 muscular tries and fronted-up on defence in Mark Cowboy Shaw fashion. Whilst James and George again scored good tries the first try of the half was the best team try of the match and fittingly capped off by the ever on hand Sam, despite his dad being AWOL at the time. Wow, the first game over, with a 10-1 scoreline and for the first time Kev and James had little constructive (aka negative) to say and by his own admission Si was speechless - a genuine first. The boys must have twigged they had done more than a little good.
With warnings of don't get complacent and remember what those French did in the semi-final of 1999 and quarter-final of 2007, the second game started with fresh legs from a sodden Paul and re-invigorated Charlie thrust into the fold. Having given his all to the cause James sat out the second game, following Liam having succumbed to his tricky knee. But as some doors close other doors open. Strong runs by Archie and Leon lead to tries by George and Rudi and the complements were repaid with Leon scoring a forceful try and Archie skipping along the touchline to score a try his dad could only dream of doing. Whilst the relentless Port scored a try it was another 4-1 scoreline to Hoylake. Finally some water arrived, but was there any fuel left in the Hoylake tank.
Well, most diligent reader, the Hoylake boys did get a couple of rugby lessons in the final half and give their coaches something to work on. The Port No 3 found his Mojo to score 5 (yes "5"!) very fine individual tries and the Hoylake boys learnt, maybe, the importance of first up tackles (or a least "slowing him down for your mate"). Despite some slick passing from Paul, determined running from Charlie, two more tries to Rudi and another to Archie the last half ended at 5-3 to Port. But the second game was 7-6 to Hoylake and an overall season-pleasing (so far) day of 17-7. All to make the lemonade taste better.