If Bill Roache is right, I have a fair bit to be worried about in the next life!!
1. Monty Weatherby
2. Christian Dolan
3. David Hanson-Isasi
4. Ollie Taylor
5. Harry Taylor
6. James Moore
7. Alex Walker
8. James Parry
9. Callum Darlington
10. Luke Pickles
11. Jake Meredith
12. Josh Brookes
13. Thomas Lea
14. Matt Reel
15. Jordan Ravenscroft
Replacements: Tom Stock, James Finucane, Cameron Beech, Cieran Leigh, Alex Wardle, Joe Beckett, Jack Bayes
Scorer: Josh Brookes
So our dream of a third successive cup final has gone. As Batman once said (in the original, and best, film with Adam West), "Some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb!", and I now know exactly what he means. Nothing went to plan today, and we were roundly beaten by a much improved Lymm side.
With the wind in the first half, Lymm showed shrewdness in attack and spirit in defence to quell our enthusiasm. The first half was an even event, with us fairly unlucky to go behind at all, let alone by 3 tries, and confidence was high at the turn around. Our forwards had an excellent first half, probably bossing it against their counterparts, whereas our backs really found the weather was Lymm's 16th man. With cold hands, and a biting, swirling wind, conditions were tough, and Lymm handled it better, kicking deep to us and putting us under pressure.
The second half started well, with Josh Brookes opening our account to give us hope, and James Finucane, returning from a broken leg after just 5 months out, introduced into the fray. We pressed forward, but were met by a stern defence, who didn't just repel our advances, but countered with some great rugby. Injuries hampered our preogression further as we lost 5 players in a short space of time, and with our shape out of sorts, we conceded further tries to truly hammer the coffin shut on this years' campaign.