by Andy Leach
HONOURS ended even as Lymm welcomed old adversaries Wirral to Beechwood on a glorious September afternoon, more suited to cricket than rugby.
Lymm made a number of changes from the team that lost narrowly in the previous week’s outing at Alnwick, the most significant being the First XV debuts being handed to prop James Mawdsley and scrum-half George Anderson – the latter being yet another product of the Lymm Colts Academy.
Wirral kicked off with the breeze at their backs. The early exchanges were, as was to be expected, fairly even until the experienced Wirral centre partnership exploited some slack defending in the Lymm midfield to burst through into the Lymm 22. The scramble Lymm defence held firm, but when Wirral spread their attack to their right flank, Lymm’s Richard McEvoy was harshly adjudged to have effected a deliberate knock-on and shown the yellow card. As McEvoy all but caught the ball which would have seen him speeding towards the Wirral line, the referee was almost certainly the only person who thought this warranted him reaching into his pocket. As it transpired though, harsh yellow cards and interceptions were to be the afternoon’s standard fayre.
On 15 minutes, Wirral made the extra man count when their centre exploited the stretched Lymm wide defence to dummy his winger and stroll in under the posts. The simple conversion was made. 0-7
Then on 22 minutes. a mistake by Lymm in midfield, handed Wirral possession about 30m from the Lymm line and, spotting a defensive mis-match, one of the Wirral backs ghosted through to score 15m in from the right-hand touchline. This more difficult conversion was also successful. 0-14.
At this stage, Lymm hadn’t really created anything with the relatively limited possession they had enjoyed. However, on 25 minutes, in their first serious foray into Wirral territory Lymm were awarded a penalty in front of the posts 25m out, which Cormac Nolan duly converted. 3-14
On 30 minutes, following a strong run by wing Joe Senior, which was taken deep into Wirral territory by Joe Watson, Lymm were awarded a penalty for a high tackle, no yellow card being shown by the referee on this occasion for this offense – see later. The penalty resulted in an attacking line-out 7m from the Wirral line. The subsequent catch and drive took play to within a metre of the Wirral line. The ball was then moved through hands to Nolan who put a clever kick in behind the advancing Wirral defensive line which McEvoy expertly gathered to cross the line, running round closer to the posts, making Nolan’s conversion relatively simple. 10-14
With a couple of minutes to go to the break, Wirral scored their 3rd try. A loose Lymm kick was collected by the Wirral full-back who, under no chase pressure, cut a swathe through the advancing Lymm ranks before linking with his centres to put the aptly named Wirral left wing, Speed, clear to the line. The conversion was missed. Half- Time 10-19
4 minutes into the second half, Lymm got their second try. Wirral secured a line-out 30m from the Lymm line and elected to spread the wall through their backs. However, the Lymm fly-half Scott Redfern had other ideas, expertly intercepting and racing in under the posts from about 65m. 17-19
Things like this can swing the game, so it was important that Lymm secured the ball from the kick-off and maintained this impetus. Sadly that was not the case, the ball was spilled and it was Wirral bearing down on the Lymm line. Frantic defence from Lymm, initially kept Wirral at bay, but then Matty Connolly infringed and was shown a yellow-card. From the sideline this looked like a run-of-the-mill “team card”, except that, on this occasion, this appeared an isolated “red zone” offense rather than one of a series. Hence, it was difficult to understand the referee’s thought process here. Almost immediately though, Lymm were shown another harsh yellow card, reducing their ranks to 13. This time Gav Woods was adjudged to have made a high tackle which was worthy of a 10 minute rest. To the onlooker, though there appeared little if any difference between this offense and the earlier Wirral one which had merited only a penalty. So 13 plays 15 – backs to the wall stuff. Could Lymm stay in the game until numerical parity was restored?
Well, amazingly they did better than that. Wirral turned down a number of kickable penalties in favour of scrums, where they could exploit their numerical advantage. With the addition of ballast in the form of Jordan Widdrington, the Lymm scrum was sufficiently solid to lead Wirral to turn to their man advantage in their back-line, sending the ball through the centres towards Speed on the wing. Somewhere along the way though, Senior, taking a leaf out of Refern’s book, intercepted and ran 75m to touch down under the cross bar. So lightening does strike twice! Remarkably, Lymm were in front for the first time in the match. 24-19.
Before Lymm had their numbers restored, Wirral did score their 4th bonus point try close to the left hand touch, with a forward burst from a line out. The difficult conversion was missed and parity was restored, both on the scoreboard and in playing strength. 24-24
With the introduction of Alfie Simpson into the back line and Nolan reverting much more to his running game, Lymm started to look the more threatening, with one excellent passage of play almost putting Aaron Rasheed in at the corner. Then, on 70 minutes, Lymm were awarded a penalty 30m out, which Nolan converted with ease. 27-24.
Wirral weren’t done though and, in all honesty, should have easily scored another try. With the line at his mercy, the Wirral attacker collided with his own player, giving the referee no option but to award a penalty to Lymm for offside. A few minutes later and Wirral were awarded a kickable penalty, bringing the scores back level. 27-27
With a couple of minutes left, Lymm had the opportunity to break the deadlock as they were awarded a penalty 30m out from the posts. There appeared to be some confusion as where the penalised offence had taken place, with the referee marching from a position about 10m to the left of the posts to one 10m in from the right touchline. In the bar afterwards, Nolan conceded that he had been given the choice by the referee of a penalty to the left or one to the right of the posts. Having elected to take the penalty to the right he was then somewhat surprised to see the referee heading towards the touchline. As his attempt drifted past the upright it seemed that, for the second week running, poor communication with the referee had cost Lymm dear.
In any event, as the final whistle sounded, it probably would have been rough justice had Wirral for all their endeavour come away with a loss. This was probably a match which both sides felt they could have won, but neither felt they should have lost.
After the match Coach Fletcher summed up the match in one word – Bizarre!
He said “Very bizarre match where both teams tried their best to lose it. After being 14-0 down to come away with a draw is pleasing. We made too many basic mistakes and didn’t execute effectively enough. We definitely need to tighten up our kicking game for next week.”
Lymm travel to the North East again next Saturday, to face table topping Billingham, KO 2.15pm.
Squad: 1) Gav Woods, 2) James Pitcher, 3) James Mawdsley, 4) Joe Watson, 5) Aaron Rasheed, 6) Matty Connolly, 7), Rory Riddell, 8) Adam Bray (c), 9) George Anderson, 10) Scott Redfern, 11) Joe Senior, 12) James Kimber, 13) Ben Stansfield, 14) Richard McEvoy, 15) Cormac Nolan, 16) Jordan Widdrington, 17) Jake Ashall, 18) Alfie Simpson.
Referee: Mr Tom Doig – RFU Northern Panel
