The One Where Graham's Leg Strapping Got Injured

With no other game taking place at Headlands Road, the mighty 4's were back in league action on the 1st XV pitch again the visitors Carrington. With a squad of 24 taking the field, the team were again led by scrum half Rich Grainger and gave a debut to wing Finlay Johnson.

They say the sun shines on the righteous and the weather was out in full force along with an expectant crowd which showed how far the 4's have come in such a short space of time. With the port flowing freely in the home changing room, the music situation was being fought over by resident thrash DJ (and part time prop) Gordon Fenton and fly half Conor Osbiston but least it didn't involved Kev 'Boyband' McCarthy and his collection of Smooth FM classic!!

The warm up was woeful and that's putting it politely. 10 mins before kick off and the forwards were still trying to discuss who stands where and who lifts who and this was before ref Jerry arrived to give us his usual 20 minute pre-match sermon from the mount. Whilst all of this was going on, Carrington were quietly assembling their team which was turning up in dribs and drabs albeit they had 15 to start the game which was soon in full flow. With Stockport electing to play into the wind, it soon became clear how the game was to pan out as the opposition immediately began trucking the ball up using their large pack and with Stockport electing to optional tackling, it wasn't long before this paid dividends (along with the million penalties conceded) as Carrington burst over for their first try which was converted to give them a 7-0 lead. To their credit, Stockport came back at the visitors and actually had some ball to play with however a series of errors (and probably more penalties) put pay to their attacking endeavours. As is always the case with rugby, the game can change on the bounce of a ball which was the case next as a blatant knock on from Osbiston went unnoticed so he played to the whistle and kicked the ball forward which seemed to be going nowhere until it bounced into the grateful hands of wing Elliot Smith who scorched past any would-be tacklers to dot down under the posts. Maybe as a penance for his knock-on, the balancing up gods then paid Osbiston back as he missed the conversion directly in front reducing the score line to 5-7. Back to the familiar set up of Carrington's heavy pack smashing forward coupled with Stockport's refusal to tackle, they were soon over again for another converted try taking the score line to 5-14 however further damage appeared to have been done to lock Graham Rushton who after laying prone on the ground appeared to be running over to the bench needing to be substituted. With concern around a serious injury, this was allayed when it was realised that he had suffered no injury but his leg tape was wounded beyond repair and was slowly but surely unravelling down his leg. How could he possibly continue without this in place??????

By now Stockport realised that they needed to move the ball wide whenever they could and this led to a try from wing Rhys Warhurst which was again inexplicably not converted by Osbiston and to make matters worse, Carrington then returned with an unconverted score of their own taking the teams into half time with Stockport behind on the scoreboard 10-19.

Now then......the half time chat was, shall we say fruity??? I'll paraphrase (cos it was mainly swearing) but the suggestion was that Stockport were scared and had bottled it by not tackling which was making it easy for the Carrington players. It was made clear it was nothing to do with Carrington, the ref or the penalty count but simply to do with attitude. Whether anyone agreed or not, there was a clear change of intensity at the start of the second half which continued throughout as Carrington could not get out of their half. With fresh players coming off the bench, Stockport threw wave after wave of attack at the visitors and were eventually rewarded when smart hands from Warhurst and centre Dave Bratt gave debutant Johnson a chance which he took with both hands, dotting down for a try which was converted by Warhurst to bring the score back to 17-19. The home side were now defending like they were the last line across the North of the Wall which meant that the big Carrington pack had nowhere to go as they were being stopped at source. No.8 Simon Warner had been key to this all game with constantly putting his body on the line with his tackling and despite sustaining several knocks he returned to the field for one last push as the home side went in search of the win. With a penalty being awarded, it appeared the Stockport bench felt the need to convey we should kick for goal (thanks for that lads, we hadn't thought of that) and Warhurst banged over the 3 points (that's 3 points for a penalty Gordon, not 4 you clown) giving the home side a slender 20-19 lead. Blood could now be sniffed and it was Carrington's turn to fall foul of the ref's whistle for another penalty which was narrowly pushed wide by Warhurst however the opposition could still not clear their lines and remained pinned inside their own 22.

With Keith Warhurst now joining his son in a 10-12 axis, the message was sent from senior to junior that we would run a move but if the ball was crap to just give it to senior to truck it up. The ball was duly released to junior who had clearly decided to label this as 'crap ball'. Senior clearly didn't think so and ran the move not expecting the ball only for it to be thrust upon him which, having taken him aback somewhat he was heard to say 'oh hello' before trundling forward and managing to get a forearm shot in on the ref before falling over one of his own players lying prone on the floor. Fortunately another offence had been spied and Stockport were awarded a further penalty which Warhurst junior banged over and with that, the final whistle and a hard fought 23-19 win for Stockport.

Back to the changing rooms for more port, more music and more Gordon explaining how we had actually won 24-19 cos we were 20-19 up and Rhys kicked a penalty which is worth 4 points................there are no words (and he's coaching a junior age group as well)!!!

Captain Grainger got on with the post-match formalities and awarded DOTD to Warhurst senior for taking out the ref (some would say that was heroic and worthy of Player of the Season) whilst Osbiston was awarded MOTM for his relentless efforts at both 9 & 10.

A great performance by all and truly showed the spirit that is being built by the 4's in their first season back in the leagues. UTP