One side went to Manchester and found themselves in as tough a group as you could imagine. A mixed team faced last season's Cheshire Cup winning side Chester A, as well as two other very well drilled sides. Inevitably they found it hard losing all three matches but coach Mitch found some encouraging individual performances.

At Stockport, where we played two further mixed teams, the group games ended in 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses. This set up 2 great tussles in the semi finals with 2 of Wilmslow's well drilled mixed teams. Whilst both ended in narrow losses they were great games with one side coming back from 5-1 down at half time to loose by a single try at the end.

So what did we learn?

1. A few players are now really beginning to develop nicely having been quite quiet during their tag years.

2. We still play our rugby with a tag mentality (i.e. run until we are tagged and then pass). Other teams are now beginning to move the ball into space and away from the tackle area much more effectively.

3. Whilst we have players who have taken to contact rugby as though they've never known any difference there are those that are still to throw themselves into it. Overall though, our tackling remains on par with other teams.

4. Our general defensive organisation and commitment is "polite" to put it mildly!

These are things we will work on over the coming weeks.

Well done to all those involved at the weekend.