Ormskirk 3rd XV 62 Carrington 0
March 3rd 2007
Yes Ormskirk’s third team are still around even though some would argue that many of them should be put out to pasture by now. But that aside, lets quickly bring you up to date with the fortunes of the thirds. After a dissappointing period over christmas (losing 7 on the bounce), the thirds have bounced back with 3 consecutive league wins, the most notable of which was the comeback against Wigan 3rd’s turning around a 21 point deficit to win 26 - 21.
This weeks fixture away at Carrington gave the 3rd’s hope for a 4th successive win after beating Carrington 71 - 0 earlier in the season. At this point in the season players start to focus on the ‘Order of Merit’ to see who has and hasn’t scored for the team, going into this game 5 regular players have failed to cross the line as yet and pressure is now on. With that in mind this week we saw the majority of the team out well before kick off warming up together, only to have to rush back to the changing room two minutes before kick off as no one had organised the valuables bag.
Ormskirk won the toss and elected to play with the wind in the first half, this gave Critchley the opportunity to pin Carrington back with some superb kicking to the corners. With the forwards dominant in all of the set plays it wasn’t long before Kirk had points on the board through winger Thompson. From the restart Kirk fielded the ball and with Silcock and Chapman driving at the Carrington defence to give Kirk good field position, Dolan chipped over for that man Coulson (surely a much better acquisition to the ‘Fantastic Four’ than the Silver Surfer I think) to chase the ball and pick up to score under the posts. Continued dominace by the kirk pack in particular the front row of Roper, Ainsworth and Stevenson led to further trys through Blood, Dolan, Thompson and Coulson.
With the half time score at 38 - 0 the game was effectively over but Kirk were keen not to take their foot off the gas and with the fresh legs of Bleasdale, Newton and Hall they started the second half as strong as they finished the first. Dolan marshalled the pack and when necessary fed Liversidge who in turn provided the centres with some quality ball to attack the Carrington midfield. O’Farrell played a superb supporting role (well worthy of a Oscar nomination) in the centre to hitman Coulson and provided him with his third try of the day. Dolan pinched another try from about 12 inches out but missed out on a third when Waywell (eager for his first try) scored from a push over after telling Dolan to keep his bloody hands off it. Speaking of first trys for the season, Hodkinson better known for his story telling and provider of comic amusement on nights out popped up to score what I have to concede was actually quite a good try, from not too close to the halfway line he ran at the opposition and ‘like a hot knife through butter’ (his words not mine) scythed his way through a couple of half hearted tackles to score under the posts. With the game almost over Carrington pressed to get some reward from the game and would have scored if it wasn’t for Devine, who tackles well above his own weight, who somehow managed to cover and stop 2 players at once.
Final Score 62 - 0
Scorers :
Coulson 3 trys 4 conversions
Thompson 2 trys
Dolan 2 trys
Blood 1 try
Hodkinson 1 try
Waywell 1 try
Critchley 2 conversions
