Ormskirk Lions (4ths) 20-17 Parkonians 2nds
In the right light, study becomes insight
But the system that dissed us
Teaches us to read and write
Rage Against The Machine, Take The Power Back, 1992.
Guile and bravery are required in any sport, in rugby they are essential. No amount of skill or technique can withstand the onslaught of sheer determination and self belief. Throw in youthful exuberance and a few grizzled veterans and what do you get? Ormskirk Lions is the answer.
If the Formby win was the GCSE, then this game was the A level, passed with all the above attributes in a match not for the faint hearted. Yes Ormskirk, the Lions roared today. Read on……
After a rousing team talk from Taff and Richmond, and another sprightly Alan Rees warm up, the Lions raced out of the starting blocks to take the game to Old Parks and soon found themselves 5-0 up thanks to some great forward play finished off by returnee centre, Ean Quirk, and dominated both territory and possession for the first quarter but amazingly no more scores were forthcoming, mainly due to some excellent Old Parks defence.
Parks soon turned this defence into attack, and now it was their turn to dominate and the Lions to defend. Wave after wave of Parks attackers, namely Prescott, Burton, Brownlow and Dunning were repelled by some grim Lions defending, exemplified by Parks danger man Dodd getting over the line only for some sharp Lions thinking seeing the ball disappear from his hands before grounding!, (I even witnessed a perfect dump tackle performed by the one and only, Russ Brennan). But Parks weren’t to be denied, and took advantage of a quick tap penalty to send captain Tony Burton over in the corner right on the stroke of half-time!
5-5 at the interval, game on!
And from the off, Parks stormed towards the Lions’ line after Peter Bennett caught the kick off and rumbled into Kirk territory, leaving the Lions flat-footed, and from the resultant rolling maul, basically Taff v Old Parks, they scored a converted try, who scored? Didn’t notice as I was too busy bollocking the lads so, many apologies, but I’m sure someone will put me straight on that point! 5-12, bugger! Been here before, Kirk crumble, Parks get big win, we rue missed chance!
So last season that thinking! A Lions team enraged is an unstoppable force these days, and surging runs by Baillie, (several of the mesmerizing varieties), Robertson, and the smash and boom of the forwards, eventually saw 17year old, Josh ‘The Tank’ Williams stomp through the Parks defence, via ref, Brian Ball, to score a great try to bring the Lions Back to 10-12. The dander is up, the belief is there, Baillie is everywhere! Two storming efforts from young Dan, (I could use many words to describe them, but just accept that they were excellent), put the Lions back into the lead at 20-12 and well in control.
But Parks were not done, and once more came hunting for glory, scoring a well worked try in the corner; I saw the hand but not the face, so again no name. Thankfully though the missed conversion still gave the Lions a slender 3 point advantage, however, repeated Parks attacks threatened to spoil the Lions’ efforts, but a combination of great drift defence and a couple of dropped balls kept the Lions’ lead intact, and if Ian Critchley had been 10 years younger, a Chris Hall moment, (ask Old Parks), may have wrapped the game up there and then, but 60 yards is a fair way at our age so his resultant kick to touch secured valuable field position, which the Lions held onto until the bell tolled for the Parkonians!
A cracking game to be honest; fights, fierce tackles, great rugby, what more can you ask for. Parks posed massive questions of this new age Kirk Lions team, which were answered superbly in what I can only describe as a monumental team effort. The times I got up from a ruck to see a green line of defenders in unison were numerous and heartening to see, something we failed to do early season, lessons learned I feel.
Honorable mentions, the entire Parks team: great effort lads only undone by some Baillie magic, you know your star will rise again, keep the faith. Lions heroes were many but notably, Quirk, Baillie, Robertson, Woodhead, Grant and possibly that old Welsh war horse in the 2nd row; lets be honest, who did have a bad game? Answers on a postcard please.
Star-man though goes to my 2nd row colleague, the considerably younger and more talented, Josh Williams. Was it his deafening roar at every scrum that galvanized his elder partner into feats of derring do?, or was it his collection of the ball at the restarts allied to his boomtastic runs that lifted the Lions to higher plains? 17 years old! Inspired Josh, and inspiring in a season of inspiration for me, all I can add is very well done Josh, man of the match.
If you listen carefully, you can hear Russ Brennan polishing his new boots!
Green Army!
Taffy
