Ormskirk 51 Hoylake 19
Ormskirk treated the large crowd basking in the afternoon sunshine to a resounding victory in their first league game at HQ Green Lane on Saturday. The lads trained hard in the week and knew that they had to have a good first 20 minutes to wipe out the memories of a poor performance the week before.
On a baking hot day, it was fitness that played a big part in this victory. The brutal fitness drills handed out by Coaches Phil Harland and Norman Hall in the summer paid off. Hoylake were the bigger team, and had a huge pack. The game started well, after 15 minutes, some slick hands in the backs got the ball to James Ilingworth who linked up well from full back. He had the ball in space and put the gas burners on from 30 metres to out pace the cover and open up the scoring at 5-0. Moments later the visitors were judged to be off-side so Johnny Armstrong slotted the penalty to go 8-0 up. Kirk had all the possession, the back row of Ben Davis, Molyneux and Glyn Roberts working the socks off to keep knocking back the visitors. In the scrum they were solid, kirk welcomed back prop Paul Rowley and along with fellow Prop Gately they proved to be a handful for their bigger opposite man.
In the line-out Andy Wilson kept hitting his jumpers, Kieran Mahood winning plenty of ball along with Ben Davis. Whilst putting pressure on the Hoylake line, birthday boy Gareth Little steeling an interception and scampering in for a try. Then with help from Ashworth, 5 minutes later Illingworth out paced his man again only to be knocked into touch inches from the line. Hoylake kept coming back but the Kirk defence held strong until just before half time when the Hoylake fly half did a simple run around and out paced the cover with a solo try, he added the extra’s and it was close at 13-7 at the break.
Captain Kirby emphasized the importance of scoring first in the second half. Almost straight away Armstrong gave an outrageous dummy and stepped the covering defence, off-loading to reliable back rower Glyn Roberts who was a deserved winner of the man of the match. Armstrong adding the extras to take it to 20-7. The next 20 minutes kirk played some quality rugby, Armstrong going over and adding the extras as well as a penalty to make it 30-7. Then from their own half the backs gained some good yards, and kept the ball alive. Every man off-loading in the tackle to the supporting player. The ball went from one side of the pitch to the other and finally Mahood picked a pass up from his boot laces to go in for a superb team try, Armstrong adding the extras. Hutchings, Morgan and Parker were all introduced off the bench and were keen to make their impact. With Ormskirk showing far superior fitness they kept bombarding the Hoylake line, a huge ‘Gary owen’ was lost in the sun by their full back and Matt Johnson was on hand to spring in from 30 metres out, again Armstrong adding the extras. Hoylake then came back and scored from a driving maul, but straight away Kirk marched back into the visitors half with Luke Parker making some good yards, off-loading to the support and Andy Wilson was on hand to sprint in at the posts, Armstrong again adding the extra’s to take his tally to 21 points for the day, proving to be a vital cog in the Kirk machine. This bringing up the half century for Kirk. The pace of the game slowed down to due to the heat and some poor defence out wide gave Hoylake a consolation try to make the final score 51-19. Kirk knew they had to get a win to keep morale high and this performance was just what they needed. They travel to Wirral on Saturday for what will be a tough game.
Elsewhere the 2nds won a tight game 34-33 away at Didsbury, a try in the final minute by Skett and converted by Whalley to gain the 2 points. The 3rds went down heavily 57-10 at Winnington park and the 4ths proving too strong against Garstang at home to wing 43-0.
