'Little old Caldy' - How the Wirral club shocked Ealing and the Championship
Back-to-back promotions and a victory over Premiership-chasing Ealing are standout moments in Caldy's recent history
©Steve Flynn
"Liverpool - Barcelona, that will do!" says Caldy RFC Director of Rugby Gareth Davies when asked to compare their 26-24 victory over Ealing Trailfinders to a historic moment achieved by his beloved football club.
On that night at Anfield, Liverpool did the unthinkable to overturn a 3-0 deficit to reach the Champions League final and last Saturday across the River Mersey, Caldy, against all the odds, caused one of the biggest rugby upsets in recent times.
Ealing are a professional outfit. They are top of the Championship and their ambitions to become a Premiership side are evident. As for Caldy, they are part-time. This is their first-ever season in the second tier but the club on the Wirral fought back from 24-7 down to create one of the greatest moments Paton Field has ever seen.
"I am not sure we 100 per cent believed what happened would happen," says Davies. "I'm still not even sure with a minute to go and with Ealing also having two players in the bin I thought we were going to win it like we did!"
Despite Ross Kane's sending off after just 25 minutes, Ealing held a 17-point advantage heading into the final quarter but a stunning hat-trick from Caldy winger Louis Beer - which included a last-gasp try - sent the home faithful into raptures.
"Well, I actually stayed down for a few seconds to soak it all in as I wasn't too sure I got over after being tackled," says Beer as he reflects on his 84th-minute winner. "As the ref blew the whistle, I got back to my feet and the emotion of the whole 80 minutes just left me.
"It was quite nice as I went into the corner where my family were and they were literally meters away. As I got up, I turned to them. It was emotional but also incredible.
"They [Ealing] are at the top for a reason. We knew it wasn't going to be easy but 80 minutes had passed, I went over and we had won. We had beaten Ealing."
Davies adds: "I don't think I am talking out of turn when I say we said before the match if we get a point out of this game, then that will be a good win for us."
You can't argue with that approach. Ealing entered the New Year with 10 wins from 10 to their name. A losing bonus point would have been a satisfactory outcome for Caldy but they took the result to a different stratosphere. The mood at the full-time whistle was jubilant to say the least.
"Dry Jan ended at 4pm on Saturday!" laughs Davies. "We had a couple of beers on the Thursday night after training and JJ [Dickinson] our captain obviously said 'I am doing Dry Jan' and he just went home which is very unusual for him. Around 4pm on Saturday, it was a different tune! It was a good evening had by all. Let's put it that way!
And surely the hat-trick hero joined in with the celebrations?
"I'm not a heavy drinker!" Beer says. "I had a few and it is obviously good to celebrate the big wins like that. You have to but you can't go too heavy as you have to look after yourself!
"[After the game] people I had never met were saying my name, saying my surname. They were giving me hugs and shaking my hand. I can see how much this club means to the fans. Talking about it now, it is giving me goosebumps.
"It was an incredible feeling [to score the winning try]. It is gradually sinking in! I am still full of excitement. Every time I log on to social media or I see the Champ [Twitter] page and the try is there for Try of the Week, it all comes shooting back to me.
"It has been emotional and we were so overwhelmed in the changing room afterwards but we were also battered and bruised after just playing top of the Champ. As the evening went on, everyone started to realise what had happened and the celebrations started. We had thrown a spanner in the works of the Championship."
Scenes of unbridled joy are becoming a recurring theme for Caldy. 2022 will never be forgotten by the club after they secured promotion to reach the second tier. Davies says the events on Saturday had similarities to April last year when his side defeated Sale FC to clinch the National One title in front of a packed-out Paton Field.
On that day, swathes of local children joined in with the pandemonium after witnessing one of the all-time moments in Caldy's history and the same thing occurred at the weekend. Footage of Beer's decisive try showed a group of youngsters celebrating wildly in the background, something which didn't go unnoticed by Davies.
"You know what it is like at Caldy. We had loads of kids there at the weekend. That is as important as anything. It just means so much to the kids and encourages them to keep doing what they are doing. It is what it is all about. It is entertainment, isn't it? For us as a community club, it is about getting the next set of Tom Sanders' through or JJ Dickinson's through and that is our point of difference from most of the league and we will continue to do it for as long as we can."
Davies was keen to stress how 'sensational' the crowd were on Saturday with Beer describing them as Caldy's 'energy and fuel.'
1,150 people stood on the banks of Paton Field as they watched the drama play out in front of them and Caldy's journey to this point, in a way, is what sport is all about.
Three years ago, Caldy were storming to the National Two North title. Covid-19 curtailed the season but Davies' charges had wrapped up the championship thanks to 25 wins out of 25. In 2021-22, they made their return to the third tier and rather than banking their chips and solidifying themselves in National One, they were a revelation.
An astonishing run of 17 straight victories culminated in the Wirral outfit securing promotion on the penultimate weekend of the season and they achieved history with a squad bursting with local talent. "We had eight or nine players in the side on Saturday against Ealing who have played mini and juniors at the club," Davies says. The Caldy boss also feels their close-knit nature and sticking to their principles has been key to their rise up the rugby ladder.
"We do have our own superstars, but we haven't brought in these superstars. Don't get me wrong, we had three lads from Sale Sharks last week [Elliott Gourlay, Rouban Birch and Joe Jones] who are exceptional and are really good lads but they know and everyone knows what we are about, how we do it and they are all happy to mix in which is great."
For Beer, he joined the club in the summer. His family are originally from the Wirral so with that in mind, the winger signed from National One side Cambridge and has fitted straight into the Caldy environment: "They are a good group of lads. Look, when I joined, you have to earn that respect. You can't just walk in because these guys are close and I saw that from day one.
"They look after each other and I had to accept I was the new boy on the block, but I have got a good bond with a few of the players here now and I feel a part of the group.
"I think if you're a tight group, you're going to fight for each other. You are going to fight for the badge. It is all well and good being an individual but if you're not stuck together or working hard together, you are going to get broken down.
"Under the sticks when Ealing scored [just after half-time to make it 24-7], we talked about showing our true colours. We know how to play rugby so it was about doing the basics well and executing them. We worked as a team to break down Ealing. As everyone saw, the tables turned and we stunned a lot of people."
As Beer alludes to, the togetherness in the group did play a part in their remarkable turnaround against Ealing and Davies echoes that view. Rather than genius tactical tweaks or expertly chosen substitutions, the shared belief and momentum was what carried Caldy over the line.
"We changed a few things during the week but I think the thing you notice in this league is it is quite often about momentum," Davies says.
"They were down to 14 at the time and getting tired and our lads just seemed to get more enthused with the minutes that passed. All of it is about belief, isn't it? Belief that you can actually do it. Probably before the game, whilst we wanted to compete, we sort of maybe thought the result was a foregone conclusion but as the game went on, mindsets changed. Certainly, we proved to ourselves that we can compete at this level if we didn't know already."
Davies revealed he and head coach Matt Cairns haven't come down from cloud nine just yet but the challenge for Caldy is to now build upon their third victory of the season.
"Finishing second from bottom" was the club's aim at the beginning of the campaign. That target hasn't shifted and neither has Caldy's willingness to want to compete and play the free-flowing style of rugby which has got them to this point.
"We don't want to stop playing," Davies continues. "We have won the last two leagues by playing rugby. We know what we are capable of and now it is about getting the lads back up for Richmond on Saturday.
"Some people may say 'are you sure you're happy in the Championship?' Well yeah, we are because we've proved we should be here but there is still a long way to go. We are third from bottom and who knows what is going to happen with Ealing and Wasps and Worcester. Obviously what has happened with Wasps is awful but how good could that be next year playing Wasps at Paton Field? Dreamland isn't it, certainly for me and no doubt the players."
It seems like Caldy have been residents of 'dreamland' for the last three years and it is clear they don't want to hand their keys back anytime soon. The reception they have received from their fellow Championship clubs "has been nothing short of exceptional" - with Davies referencing Ealing as being unsurprisingly magnanimous in defeat last weekend - and all of this is only adding to their enjoyment and adventure in the second tier.
"Who'd have thought little old Caldy would be sat where we are now?" Davies says. Considering what the club has achieved in recent times, 'little old Caldy' seem to have all the ingredients necessary to serve up some more Liverpool - Barcelona moments in the not-too-distant future.
