Lymm 17 Wirral 21 Report by Neil Allen
A spirited finish was not quite enough as Lymm lost to high flying Wirral 17-21.
Finally there was some rugby to enjoy, as Beechwood played host to three-home games at the weekend.
Thanks go to the work of the ground staff and the happy bunch of Saturday morning ‘forkers’ who helped to ensure that play was possible.
The big question was, having not played for 5-weeks would the first team re-enter the fray rusty or rejuvenated, against a Wirral side riding high in the table and coming off the back of an excellent win against league leaders Sheffield Tigers.
The first five minutes suggested the rest has been rejuvenating as Lymm passed the ball around confidently going through some nice phases, eventually being rewarded with a penalty in front of the posts, which McEvoy put over to make it 3-0.
This spurred Wirral into action and a break up-field saw them camped in the Lymm 22. Good defence by Lymm held off the initial surges but after a prolonged period of pressure the Wirral centre found a hole in the defence to stroll over un-apposed under the posts. The extras were added to make it 7-3. To make matters worse the defensive effort had seen second row Kahui taken off with what looked a nasty knee injury.
Wirral were now into their stride and with poor Lymm kicking, gifting the opposition the ball they attacked again. This time it was the turn of the Wirral winger to sprint the full length of the field selling a series of outrageous dummies all duly bought by Lymm to score a great individual try. The conversion was added to take the score to 14-3.
Wirral were now looking good playing with pace and precision, clearly showing the benefit of playing regularly over the past few weeks. For Lymm on the other hand the rust was settling in. With Wirral looking sharp and in the ascendancy Lymm were now holding on. On the plus side the defence was good and the set piece was more than a match for the opposition.
Just when they thought they had got to half-time without any further damage a line-out offence by Wirral, which went un-spotted by the referee, caused Lymm to stop playing. Wirral took advantage and strolled over for a third try to make it 21-3. While there was no doubting Wirral’s supremacy all the 3-tries had been soft scores.
The rest of the half petered out with Lymm increasingly frustrated by both themselves and the referee, whose bizarre series of non-decision making continued the whole game. In contrast Wirral looked well drilled and in complete control.
There was no great optimism for the second-half from the Lymm supporters and this was compounded in the first five minutes when Jordan Widdrington was yellow carded for a high tackle. For the next 25 minutes Wirral camped in the Lymm 22 playing patient structured rugby. For Lymm’s part the defence was good but any attempts to break-out from the 22 were thwarted by poor basic skills – Lymm seemingly unable to remember how to kick, pass or catch the ball!
With Lymm unable to string anything together and Wirral seemingly content to see the game out, the second half meandered along. To add to Lymm woes Ashall and Kerr also had to go off to injury leaving Lymm stretched.
Suddenly out of nowhere with ten-minutes to go, what had been a poor half sprung into life as Lymm found some momentum. Shard who had come on at scrum-half started to zip the ball about and Lymm suddenly remembered how to pass and catch. A great attack eventually saw Aaron Rasheed crash over for a well worked score, with the extras added this made the score 21-10. Lymm now sensed the opportunity for an unlikely loosing bonus point and began to attack in waves with Ollie Higginson to the fore. Callum Harris made a break the full length of the field just to be bundled into touch.
Lymm had eventually knocked off the rust and now had the bit between their teeth, attacking the Wirral line in waves. From a 5-metre scrum Adam Bray picked up and found Higginson on a great inside line to go over 21-17. Lymm were now sniffing a most unlikely victory and came back again only for the game to end frantically and quite fittingly, in the overall scheme of things, with a Lymm knock-on.
So a rousing finish saw Lymm win the second half 14-0 but it was ultimately too little too late. For large parts of the game Lymm’s basic skills were poor, however the set piece, defence and spirited end shows what the team is capable off and left everybody feeling a little happier as they got stuck into the left over beer from the previous night’s beer festival ………….
Other results were generally to Lymm’s advantage and they remain in 8th position with 2/3 games in hand. Next week they are away to Birkenhead Park, KO 2.15pm. Lymm 2nd XV are back in action at home to Caldy 2ndXV in the Premiership Conference ‘A’ League.
Team
1) Jordan Widdrington, 2) Ross White, 3) Dan Horton, 4) Alex Kahui, 5) Andy Kerr, 6) Ollie Higginson, 7) Jake Ashall, 8) Adam Bray (C), 9) Tom Baker, 10) Oli Lancaster, 11) Richard McEvoy, 12) Tom Bray, 13) Callum Harris, 14) Richard Halford, 15) Joe Knowles, 16) Aaron Rasheed, 17) Tom Shard, 18) Mike Auden
