29.03.08 - WARRINGTON 5-24 ORMSKIRK
The English weather showed up in true style at Warrington this weekend but couldn’t prevent Ormskirk’s First XV from putting four tries past an enthusiastic and strong Warrington opposition.
Still playing with confidence, and in the knowledge that they are through to next week’s Lancashire Plate semi-final, the travelling Green Lane men had to muster up all their guile and tenacity as Warrington elected to play with the wind advantage and came out playing hard, up-front rugby. The pack had most of the work to do in the opening half - heroic performances from back row Hutchings to front row Gately somehow prevented the home team from crossing the white wash.
With the wind in their faces Kirk crept their way up the park, fly-half Whalley taking advantage of penalty kicks to gain valuable territory. Despite the torrential conditions the lineout provided Kirk with some of the best ball of the afternoon, credit to Andy Wilson managing to find Phil ‘the Enforcer’ Davies with all but one of this throw-ins.
With the break approaching it looked like neither team would rack up any points but after taking the ball from a ruck, running across the line and then holding it up, hooker Wilson was able to off-load to Matt Johnson who saw Andy Wroe in space. The winger beat his man, but the cover defence forced him into touch. A clean win from the line-out and a pin point ball from Jamie Gregg set up Whalley who put Wroe away. This time Wroe beat a couple of men and scored, although, just out of reach for a successful conversion.
The second half began well from the home team’s point of view. Big Ben Davies got his head in the way during a tackle and to Warrington’s relief had to be substituted due to concussion. However, one impact player was replaced by another and Mark Webster entered the arena to impart some of his moves on unsuspecting attackers.
Kirk’s lead would improve when Matt Johnson recycled ball from Jamie Gregg and proved to be too powerful for the Warrington defence as he bulldozed his way through, adding his trademark hand-off into the equation. After this the run of play shifted completely in Kirk’s favour. Props Rowley and Gatley in joined their share of running the ball and Captain Kirby almost scored himself when going from the side of a ruck. But the next try came from outside centre Curley, who skipped around his man and ran in a beauty from the ten metre line. Whalley converted taking the game out of reach at 0-17.
Ormskirk didn’t relent and continued pressing forward. The backs did well to send the ball down the line and winger Wroe finished a good afternoon’s work with his second try. Another conversion put Kirk 24 points ahead. A deserved consolation try from Warrington in the last five minutes dented Kirk’s overall point score but the big news was yet to come. ………………….
………Second position Sefton, Kirk’s promotion rivals, had dropped points, getting beaten by Dukinfield. With a better points difference and the number two slot, Ormskirk now have a real chance of going into League I. The final two league games are potentially the biggest matches for a number of years, perhaps Coach Harland’s Masterplan is falling into place….
Team P W D L F A Diff Pts Adjust
Dukinfield 20 15 1 4 373 269 104 31 0
Ormskirk 20 12 2 6 358 240 118 26 0
Sefton 20 13 0 7 345 248 97 26 0
Orrell Anvils 20 13 2 5 365 300 65 26 -2
Wallasey 20 9 2 9 360 298 62 20 0
Southport 20 10 0 10 260 310 -50 20 0
Warrington 20 9 1 10 391 316 75 19 0
Crewe and Nantwich 20 9 1 10 226 264 -38 19 0
Ashton on Mersey 20 9 0 11 298 325 -27 18 0
Oswestry 20 9 0 11 314 355 -41 18 0
Liverpool Collegiate 20 3 0 17 232 391 -159 4 -2
Oldershaw 20 4 1 15 231 437 -206 0 -9
