Wigan U8 v Littleborough U8

Players - Nathan, both Patrick H's, Daniel, Levi, Francis, Connor, Jamie, James, George
Weather - Glorious sunshine
Pitch conditions - excellent, might take spin on the fourth day

It had all started so well. The sun was shining. It was warm enough to not need to wear the usual three layers. We were at home. Playing on the first team pitch. Colin was wearing his shorts. An expectant crowd had gathered to see the homecoming of the under 8s. To see if reports of their progress were true. And yet...

The opening stanza was promising. The boys put aside their lacklustre performance of last week and started strongly. The tagging was solid and accurate. They moved the ball well. Patrick scored one of his tries that no-one could quite work out. Connor was running well and scored two excellent tries. Daniel stretched his legs for a couple. George was excellent in his straight running and strong support play. Nathan probed the defence with his jinking runs. Everything looked normal.
Littleborough were, as always, a strong outfit. They passed quickly and ran strongly. Yet Wigan stayed with them matching them try for try. The second half became tougher for the home side but they stayed in touch and came with a creditable 8-10 defeat.

The second game was another matter.

Sometimes a team needs to taste defeat to keep them honest. The Roman philosopher Boethius tells us that "inconsistency is our very essence". We need to accept the past and move on. It is pointless to make excuses for what happened; we must look forward. Indeed I'm not going to use this report to make excuses and Coach Butler wouldn't want that.

That said though:

It was very sunny. I definitely saw some players squinting throughout the second game.
We aren't really used to playing on grass. Most of our play relies on a 3G surface. The wearing of studs put us off.
It was unseasonably warm. I felt really disorientated and was in two minds whether to take my jacket off. God knows how the players felt.
We haven't played at Douglas Valley for ages and it was distracting for the boys because you could see Winter Hill when usually you can't because it's raining.
And they brought on a whole new team for the second match. Full of fast players who dove in for tries.

We lost 13-2.

Man of the match: George

Post match meal: hot dog and chips. Eaten in silence. In the other room. Hoping to avoid Coach Butler's eye.