Last Pre-season fixture for the Ravers
Training at Sale Sharks
Chinnor 53-36 Caldy
All images in this newsletter by Kieran Free
At 7.45 am on Saturday a lot of tired players boarded the Caldy coach for the 4 ½ hour journey to Thame in Oxfordshire. It was the Ravers’ final pre-season session against Champ rivals Chinnor. The tiredness wasn’t just down to a long, tough week at the day job but rather more directly attributed to Friday’s joint training session with Sale Sharks’ senior squad at their Carrington training ground in Manchester.
New Raver second row Harry Harding described the joint training session as fast, intense and challenging. For his part hooker Ollie Hearn was pleased with how the Caldy pack stood up to the challenge but admitted that Courtney Lawes had singlehandedly pretty much destroyed every Caldy maul. There were no injuries reported and it was clear that the young Caldy squad had learned a huge amount from the exercise, but it was not exactly the normal preparation ahead of taking on one of the most powerful sides in the Champ.
“We wanted to stress test the senior squad which contains a significant number of new and emerging players. This 48-hour period was going to do exactly that” said Caldy Head Coach Matt Cairns.
Matt Cairns selected a squad of 34 for the trip to face Nick Easter’s Chinnor side with a third of this Caldy squad not having any experience of Champ level rugby. Three 30-minute sessions provided the opportunity for every Caldy player to get proper game time against a Chinnor side which last season finished 5th in the Champ and in their previous warm up fixture had demolished a young Leicester Tigers side 55-0.
Playing with the benefit of a stiff breeze, Caldy started brightly with the pack edging the collisions to provide a platform for the initial live wire half back combination of scrum half Nye Thomas and stand off Ben Parkin. The session ended with the Ravers one score ahead 19-24 after both hooker Matt Gallagher and winger Will Robinson had each registered a brace of tries. Matt Gallagher’s scores came from trademark driven mauls and both scores by Will Robinson came from enterprising open play. Showing tremendous acceleration, Connor Wilkinson slashed through the Chinnor midfield after a good period of all round play to put speedster Robinson in at the corner for the pick of the Caldy scores.
Caldy should have turned around further ahead than 19-24 to the good. Ravers number 8 Callum Ridgway burst clear in midfield and looked to have the legs to go in under the posts. However, he either lacked confidence in his pace or had too much confidence in his footballing skills as he inexplicably put a grubber kick into the corner which just evaded the rushing Ravers winger.
With 10 minutes of the second 30-minute spell still to go the Ravers held a 26-36 lead after another score through the backs and a Monty Weatherby special. A significant number of Caldy changes somewhat disrupted their rhythm for the remainder of the session and the home side took advantage, using the conditions to eventually draw level 36-36 at the end of 60 minutes.
At the start of the final 30 minutes Caldy made further wholesale change fielding what was pretty much an under 21 side apart from the nous and experience of scrum half Ollie Wynn who had seamlessly taken over from Nye Thomas in the 2nd session, and the power of prop Ryan Higginson who came on for his second stint.
Predictably this young side were shaded in the collisions and in the set pieces and the experienced Chinnor side scored 17 unanswered points, with the last 7 points coming on the stroke of the final whistle. The plus side of this final 30 minutes came in the experience these young players will have gained and the ambition they showed, which was typified by a sizzling midfield break by powerful Caldy centre Gabe Mault. Chinnor were made to work very hard for their scores. With physical maturity and greater experience Caldy’s youngsters will surely bridge the gap between 2nd xv rugby and the Elior Champ
Matt Cairns was pleased with the attitude and commitment throughout the squad. “The lads have put in a lot of work throughout pre-season which has concluded with a very tough 48-hour stint. I am pleased with the resilience they have shown but there is still work to do before we face Hartpury at Paton Field next Saturday 19 September 2026”
The Caldy players and coaching staff will be hoping for a big and noisy support from the Wirral public when Hartpury visit Paton Field next Saturday 19th September in the Ravers’ first Elior Champ fixture in the 26/27 season.
The match kicks off at 3 pm at Paton Field with gates open at midday.
As we look ahead our 2nd and 3rd teams kick their seasons off at home when the 1st team travel down to Blackheath on the weekend of the 26th.
Please get these in the diary and support the lads as they look for a flying start to their campaigns.
Caldy 2’s vs Wirral 2’s
Caldy Rav3rs vs Mossley Hill 3’s
