Men’s Rugby League
Liverpool JM 1sts 16
Newcastle 1sts 23
A second trip to Liverpool in three weeks saw the AU’s most successful team take on a fresh looking Liverpool John Moore’s side. An early departure from the student union saw last week’s hero Dan Capaross turn up tired, moody and with numerous hairs out of place, but on time nonetheless.
Rocked by numerous injuries and unavailability, the Owls took a small squad with two debutants. Despite crashing over for a try, which even Jonny Watts could have scored, home wrecker Rob Corner was brought into the centres and lived up to expectations by having a tirelessly average game.
Tommy Schofield came into the halves and loved up fresher Matt Fry made his second appearance on the wing for the undefeated Owls. After a mid-week identity crisis, fresh and edgy looking halfback Chris Griffiths darted over for the first of his two tries of the day, breaking through some shoddy John Moores defence.
Crowd favourite Andreas ‘The Greek’ Methenitis played a part in the second powering his way to the line before a clever offload left Griffiths with the simple job of downward pressure. Half time arrived and the Owls knew set completion was the key to yet another victory.
While ‘old codgers’ Dave Knox and Micky Ward rallied the troops at half time two young ladies approached the sidelines from over the hill. With a twinkle in his eye and a grin as wide as the Cheshire cat Rob Corner informed the team of his two ex girlfriends presence on the sidelines.
All eager to impress the stunning spectators, NURL once again found another gear and hit cruise control this time with Man of the Match and Mummy’s boy Myles Hudson taking charge of the wheel. Micky Ward found himself over the whitewash twice to continue his fine try scoring record and a late trademark drop goal was kicked to seal the win for NURL on a glorious afternoon in Merseyside. Still top of the league, still undefeated and still the AU’s most beloved, the Owls have one hand on the league title yet again. Not to get complacent though, Newcastle must remain on song to defeat the academic students of Leeds Met next week at Fortress Cochrane.