Ormskirk RUFC

Following last weeks league win the thirds had regained 4th position in the league and had good reason to be in high spirits and full of confidence.

This weekend offered a break from the league fixtures as Cup fever took over at Green Lane well for the 2nds, 3rds and 4ths at least.

After numerous changes of configurations and personnel during the week the third team were lucky to have 15 players with kit and the willingness to play by the time Saturday came. At least 6 regular players were filling gaps higher up, having said that the beauty of the third team is that people want to play for them and those lucky few that do find that they fit in very easily.

Metrovick arrived early and were keen as mustard, by 2.30pm they were out on the pitch (the whole team) warming up, running attacking lines, tackling and generally getting themselves up for the game. Ormskirk on the other hand have their own individual way of preparing for the game, this generally consists of the backs generously allowing the forwards to change first so they can go out early and warm up, the backs then take as much time as possible to get changed in a nice warm changing room. Hesketh in HIS corner never talks to anyone, Liversidge with his long sleeve shirt and his customary warm up routine which strangely involves a lot of hand clapping and Critchley with his cigar and beer leaving it till the last minute to get himself ready.

Anyway by the time kick off arrived everyone was ready and up for the start of what could be a glorious cup run, okay ‘dinner plate’ run. If you read these reports regularly you might remember the name Coulson for those who don’t lets just say that surname is closely associated with the word RAPID. Metrovick kicked off and for about 3 minutes things were a bit nip and tuck, Metrovick gained some early possession which quickly broke down on their left flank. Who was there on hand to pick up the loose ball on the half way line yes it was Coulson and with nothing much on, as the rest of kirks team were just about waking up to the fact they were playing rugby, he slipped into overdrive and skipped past the metrovick defence to score. Metrovick restarted the game and again a bit of nip and tuck rugby followed, Metrovick again allowed an attack to break down, Coulson followed a chip through and again got the better of Metrovick with his sheer pace, 10 - 0 with 5 minutes on the clock.

Metrovick had clearly been caught cold and struggled to get themselves into the game. Ormskirk continued to have the upper hand and but some some silly handling errors and a few forward passes they would have been out of sight by half time. Kirks pressure did tell again though as good quick ball from the forwards followed by good handling through the back line resulting in a try for 17 stone whippet Thompson. As the half came to a close Kirk fell asleep and conceded a converted try from what must have been Metrovick’s only sortie into Kirks half. 17 - 7 at the break.

With kirk eager not to let Metrovick back into the game in the 2nd half they went in search of an early score. Once again that man Coulson was on hand to provide the opening only this time he selfishly skipped past the defence once again and offloaded to Chapman to gift him an easy score under the sticks.

At this point Kirk should have stamped their authority on the game and killed off any chance that Metrovick had, and when Metrovick had a player sin binned that should have been a formality. Unfortunately things were a bit closer than that Metrovick twice from some scrappy play from both the kirk forwards and backs, at a time when kirk should have been playing a much tighter game.

Metrovick had hauled themselves back into contention with score at 24 - 19 in kirks favour. Things were a bit to close for comfort and with people like Critchley seemingly intent on hitting the self destruct button with cross field kicks directly into the arms of the opposition (thankfully Devine was on hand to save his blushes) the game could easily have gone away from kirk. Thankfully kirk managed to score the winning try and guess who was responsible, yes that man Coulson, who has now played twice and scored 6 trys, and already has his name firmly etched in third team history.

Final score 31 - 19. Kirk return to league duties with an away fixture at Eccles next week while they wait to see who they will meet in the next round of the plate.

Man of the Match: Lee Coulson
Scorers, Trys: Coulson (3), Thompson, Chapman, Conversions: Coulson (3)