With three second row crying off just before 1pm, leaving them with only 14 players, Essington knew they would be up against it when arriving at Wednesbury to see them warming up with about 30 players. Despite the shortage of second row, centre Nigel Lynch bravely volunteered to play there.
Despite being on the back foot for most of the half, Essington defended valiantly and were unlucky not to score during a period of 15 minutes or so in the Wednesbury half. A try needlessly given away at the end the half meant that Essington went into half time 27 – 0 down.
Gradually Wednesbury began to take more control of the game as Essington lost more players due to injury. However, to their credit, they never gave up and were unlucky not to get some points on the board.
Special mention must go to Jak Somers who was superb in attack and defence.
Inexperienced Jack Lynch, in his new position of full back,earned a well deserved man of the match award from his team mates for his constant last ditch tackling and excellent counter attacking, belying the fact that he played his first ever game of rugby only last week.
Final score Essington 0 Wednesbury 51