Waterloo u14s 31pts - Ormskirk u14s 14pts
Ormskirk travelled to arguably the best team in Lancashire at their age group and came away with a very creditable performance with some excellent individual highlights but a fantastic team spirit and never-give-up attitude.
Waterloo are a very good team, possessing some star players and a wealth of talent throughout their large squad. The current Lancashire champions were looking, even with three of their top players out, to put a big score on the Ormskirk lads, who quite frankly refused to lie down and tackled as though their lives depended on it all through the game. Ormskirk were encouraged well by their travelling supporters and the George Lightfoot Cheerleaders, whose idol enjoyed flattening his school mates in the home side. Indeed St.Marys College provided most of their first team - more or less evenly split between the sides, adding extra spice to this derby.
Ormskirk even took the lead as they followed up some good tackling on the home centres to win a scrum in midfield. A good chip form Adam Kirk was gathered by Gavin Griffiths, the ball re-cycled and from the resultant ruck Jonny Dunn slipped a blind side pass to Eddie Webster who set off and left 4 tacklers in his wake to score a wonderful try. Dan Bailie struck a good conversion to add the 2 extras. Back came the home side with wave after wave of attacks, repelled well by Ormskirk with one tackle by Alex Morrell standing out as he hammered the Waterloo flying winger into touch. However, the power of the home side brought a try when hesitancy in the Ormskirk defence led to the ball being stolen and fed to a supporting back rower to plunge over. An excellent conversion from the touchline then tied the scores. Waterloo went ahead when the ball was passed inside right on the touchline, but due to the pitch not being roped off and the crowd standing in the field of play, the touch judge had no idea whether there had been a foot in touch or not. Another great conversion put them 14-7 up. From more pressure Waterloo worked the ball one way and then the other to create an overlap for their centre to score, the conversion was missed. Ormskirk came back with a few attacks, but nothing to seriously threaten a score. Their defence too held firm as Waterloo tried to extend their lead - Aaron Cheung back from two months out put in some crunching tackles.
The second half saw both sides make numerous changes as they both had players selected for the Merseyside district team on Wednesday. Ormskirk’s shuffled side performed excellently and only two slip ups in defence let the home side in. However, they weren’t going to lie down and came back brilliantly to enjoy the bulk of the play in the remaining third of the match with Alex Morrell and Gavin Griffiths making ground all over the pitch, but the lack of support in numbers resulted in half chances not being taken. Ormskirk were awarded a penalty and Cecil Fairhurst charged to the line only to be tackled well just short, but Ormskirk’s man of the match Eddie Webster was on hand to scoop up and drive over. Griffiths added a peach of a conversion from the touchline and Ormskirk roared back for another score with Cecil and Aidan Charlton combining well to again go close.
A very entertaining game ended to warm applause from an appreciative crowd who recognised that although Ormskirk were a level or two below Waterloo they put in a performance of great character that showed they have potential to improve further.
Tries: Eddie Webster (2). Conversions: Dan Bailie, Gavin Griffiths
Team: A.Fitzpatrick, M.Tasker, B.Watherston, M.Swords, J.Morris-Holland, S.Maloney, E.Webster, A.Charlton, J.Dunn, A.Kirk, J.Ford, D.Bailie, G.Griffiths, A.Morrell, A.Cheung. Interchanges: S.Brazier, C.Fairhurst, J.Wright, G.Lightfoot, C.Boylan, M.Bradbury
