This week brought with it a trip to the coast to play Southport, with the sun paying us a very welcome visit also. Southport are a team we have played quite a bit over the years, with us having a great relationship with their head coach Dave. With our previous trip over only having been a few weeks previous, we had a good idea what we would be faced with, the previous meeting having been a reasonably well balanced affair, potentially falling slightly in Southport’s favour, we knew our boys would need to step up a gear.
With a really good turn out, in the region of 25+ Hoppers boys making the trip, this promised to be a very enjoyable morning of rugby. With the boys splitting into three teams, to face up against a similarly balanced three teams from Southport, games were ready to commence. Our boys did not disappoint, coming out of the traps quicker than a greyhound chasing a stuffed rabbit, they never took their foot off the gas once. All proving to be ferocious in defence and turning ball over at just about every given opportunity and then making the most in attack. There was lots of direct, strong running, with consistent support being offered at all angles, the try scoring opportunities were everywhere. Even when lads didn’t have the ball in hand, they are starting to show their awareness and organise themselves for the next push towards the line. In defence also, the boys were strong, well organised and really starting to communicate with each other.
It really is a joy to watch every single boy play for the team and realise the part they play in the bigger picture, a picture that is starting to look very healthy as we approach the later end of the season. The results on the day were very resoundingly in Hoppers favour, with four wins (16 – 0, 10 – 0, 10 – 2, 6 – 1) and one extremely well fought draw (8 – 8), but all of this aside, every single player thoroughly enjoyed their Sunday morning and I think the watching parents enjoyed just as much.
