Ormskirk First XV 34 Merseyside Police 0
Lancashire Plate Round 1
Sunday 26th August
After a gruelling pre-season Ormskirk First XV kicked off their season with a convincing win over Merseyside Police in the opening round of the Lancashire Cup. ‘Kirk were a changed team from the one that walked off the park at the end of last season and the new recruits made positive impacts.
Merseyside Police turned up, as expected, with big powerful players and for the first 20 minutes Kirk forwards had to battle their way through lineouts, scrums and rucks. Stand-off Phil Armstrong kicked for territory and the first points of the afternoon came when Glyn Roberts managed to steel Merseyside ball at the back of a lineout. With a short break followed by a neat off-load to Cliff Kirby it was the captain who opened the account.
Despite the score much of the first half remained a scrappy affair and Ormskirk seemed to waiting for the final 40 minutes before they would be showing any flair. As the Police forwards began to tire the Kirk Pack stepped up their game and working in pods began to win and provide, through Scrum half Scott Angel, good quick ball to the backs. Andy Wroe determined not to lose his top try scorer cap received the ball on the wing and was able to shake off his opposite man to score Kirks second try.
Not long after the forwards constructed a try of their own from a scrum position on the oppositions 5 metre line, Captain Kirby was on hand to bag his second try. With a healthy lead Kirk were confident and began running ball from all over the park. A break in the centres was supported by Number 8 Kieran Mahood. The Police managed to halt Kirk’s advance with a good tackle but the support play was quick and ruck ball was shipped out to debutant Peter Spengler. With some dazzling foot work the youngster was able to beat a number of players and score a try on his first outing for the First team.
Ormskirk’s fifth came almost immediately afterwards. Mahood took the ball from the re-start and stormed through three tackles linking up with his other back-row players, a well executed backs move saw Simon Staniforth sprinting down the field only getting caught at the 22 yard line. Again the forwards re-cycled quickly and Armstrong supplied Flanker Roberts who drew his man and passed to Chris Ashworth who was able to put away Wroe for his second try.
The final nail in the coffin came from Armstrong, with his back line running dummy moves he was able to cut an angle between his opposite man and inside centre, scoring under the posts. This was the start to the season that Kirk were looking for and Coach Phil Harland praised the efforts of the players at the end and re-iterated that the real work starts henceforth. The next home game is on Saturday against Wallasey in the league.
Team: V Gatley , D Jones (A Wilson 65) P Blackwood ,J Bennett (P Kearney 60), ,P Davies ,C Kirby ,G Roberts, K Mahood S Angel ,P Armstrong ,S Staniforth ,M Hutchings (M Webster 70), C Ashworth ,A Wroe , P Spengler
