Ormskirk 4th XV 67 – 7 Colne and Nelson 2nd XV
Playing in blustery conditions that threatened to turn the game into a farce, Ormskirk produced some fine champagne rugby in the face of a strong wind in the first half to turn this game into a one sided affair despite the early setback of conceding a soft try to the strong running opposition winger.
Colne and Nelson turned up late to the game and strong words from skipper Wallwork urged Ormskirk to start strong and knock the wind out of their sails before the opposition could get the journey from East Lancs out of their legs. Notwithstanding the early try, Ormskirk far exceeded expectations built on a solid forward platform from the front five of Wallwork, McDermott, O’Donovan, Selfe and Walker, which gave the backrow of Lee, Green and Jacobs plenty of opportunity to run at the opposition. Lee with 3 tries and Green with the opener was an indication of their dominance. With the wind at their backs, when they did get the ball in the early exchanges, Colne and Nelson elected to kick for position but they did not count on the revitalised play of veteran full back Brennan returning the ball with vigour belying his aging legs. From one of these exchanges came the try of the game. Colne kicked a Penalty deep into the Ormskirk half which was caught sweetly by Brennan who beat 2 chasers half his age with a couple of outrageous dummys before making 30 yards to link with his supporting backs of Marshall and young Ben who put his co-centre Jay in for a glorious try.
Turning around to gain the benefit of the wind, Ormskirk did not take their feet of the pedals and were further rewarded with 3 tries from the excellent efforts of scrum half Owens and 2 for replacement flanker Tanton, who has worked for years to perfect the perfect side step of simply running straight over anything daft enough to stand in his way. Centre Ben enjoyed a solo effort when returning a poor kick for another try. A further score resulted in the event of the game. As a follow up to the film ‘’White Men Can’t Jump’’, Ormskirk 4ths have the film rights to ‘’Props can’t Kick’’ where Prop O’Donovan laid to rest the myth that props were only on the pitch to make the backs look pretty by slotting a conversion from the enormous distance of 10 yards to add to earlier conversions by Lee to make the final score 67-7.
A superb all round performance extending their unbeaten run to 5 games and a lofty 4th position in the league gives them an excellent opportunity to take on promotion contenders Fylde in their next encounter at Green Lane next week.
