ORMSKIRK 4TH XV 60 CLITHEROE 2ND XV 20
27th January 2007
Ormskirk’s 4th XV continued their unbeaten streak and climbed a few rungs up the league table after beating Clitheroe at Green Lane on a blustery afternoon. Having only lost one game since the start of December, Ormskirk 4ths are brimming full of confidence and playing some very entertaining rugby. So when struggling Clitheroe arrived at Ormskirk this weekend, ‘kirk knew that if they played with the same team spirit as in previous weeks, they could put some points on the visitors. Nevertheless, complacency is a dangerous thing, and Ormskirk made hard work of this encounter in the first half.
Choosing to play with the wind first half, ‘kirk came up against a strong tough pack, who were fighting for every ball. However like every team, Clitheroe had their weaknesses and it was only a matter of time before Ormskirk had found these and exposed them. The Gingerbread struggled to find their stride for the first part of the game, finding it tough in certain areas. Clitheroe didn’t help matters by defending well for spells and blocking Ormskirk out on a number of occasions with some good tackling. Ormskirk did however break the deadlock and secured a 12-8 lead at the half time whistle, centre Andrew Montrose scoring a brace after some good interplay between forwards and backs.
After a dressing down from captain Dave Jonsson at half time, kirk came out for the second half rejuvenated and started to take the game to Clitheroe. The kirk forwards began to take control of the game and their backs stamped their authority on the game and started to run the Clitheroe defence ragged. On a number of occasions the kirk backs stretched Clitheroe defence and scored a number of trys. In fact nine of the ten trys scored by kirk came from the backs as they took control in an encounter that Ormskirk won convincingly after a shaky start, notching up their biggest victory of the season.
The forwards take credit for winning the backs excellent clean ball, and the backs did the rest, showing a gulf in class despite the best afforts of the valiant Clitheroe defence. Montrose finished with 5 scores, with stand in scrum-half Charlie Gray bagging a brace. Another veteran – Mark Baillie – also scored twice, with captain Jonsson crossing the white-wash after a 30 yard scamper.
Ormskirk 4ths hope to continue their current run of good form when they travel to Blackpool next weekend.
Trys : Montrose (5), Baillie (2) Gray (2) Jonsson
Cons : Baillie (5)
