Sherwood Wolf Hunt make a winning start to new season with first trophy

Wolf Hunt entered two teams into the tournament in both the Men’s and the Social competition to chase their first piece of silverware for the season.

With the Social team entering against teams such as Staffordshire Quantums, Worcester Rebels, N.E.W Ravens and Loughborough students, they knew they had their work cut out to take home the prize.

It was a fast start for Wolf Hunt as Pete Alldread scored straight from the kick-off of the first game against the Quantums.

A strong run from young starlet Luke Fisher before passing inside to Alldread was a clear sign of how things were going to go.

Winning their first three group games 32-0 v Staffordshire, 16-10 against N.E.W Ravens and 22-4 against Worcester they sealed their place in the final of the tournament.

The last group game of the day saw Sherwood take on Loughborough Students where they came up short losing the game 16-8.

Heading into the final, Wolf Hunt were looking to claim revenge against Loughborough as they faced off again in an exciting game of Rugby League.

At half-time the Students side had a 10-0 lead and looked comfortable going into the second half of the game.

But a rallying call from the coaches put the spark back into Wolf Hunt hearts. Scoring two second half tries and keeping Loughborough out saw them pull close to 10-8.

But with time against them it was just too late to complete the comeback as Loughborough took home the prize in the social competition.

For the men’s competition Wolf Hunt had chance to take a look at this season’s opposition, playing games against Leamington Royals, Telford Raiders, Oxford Cavaliers and Loughborough Students.

In similar fashion to the social team’s group results, Sherwood chalked up three victories, running out 20-4 winners against Oxford, 18-0 against Leamington and beating Telford 12-0, before coming up short against Loughborough 16-12.

This meant that Wolf Hunt faced a second final against Loughborough.

Undoubtedly in tournaments such as this, injuries occur, and Sherwood headed into the final without inspirational captain Ryan Hill, who suffered a concussion in a game earlier in the day.

Again, like the social final, the Students went into half-time winning the game.

With clear instructions from experienced head coach Glenn Holt ringing in their ears and seeing their social teammates falling short at the final hurdle, the team was determined to make amends for the first half, eventually running out 20-10 winners and claiming the title for the first ever Midlands 9s tournament.

Coach Holt said: "It was a fantastic day all round.

"The lads put in stellar performances all day in cold conditions.

"To play 20-minute games five times over, sometimes with five minutes breaks and sometimes with an hour’s gap, isn’t easy by any means.

"I’m incredibly proud of not just the team, but the club overall to come here and achieve what we have.”

Wolf Hunt will now look to take this momentum and run with it into the Midlands league season which kicks-off on Saturday, 18th May.

Wolf Hunt social’s player of the tournament was Jordan Flynn while men’s team player of the tournament went to Charlie Mason.