Ormskirk u.12’s 7  Leigh u.12’s 7
Last Sunday we travelled to play Leigh,who narowly beat us at home barely a month ago. The preceding week’s run up to the match seemed a catalogue of catastrophes, with us arriving at Leigh short of 5 key players through a combination of sickness and injury. However, as usual, the team spirit was high and the lads were keen to see some game action.
Despite of the cold start the boys were out of the blocks well with the early part of the game demonstrating strong tackling from both sides with very little between the two teams. Ormskirk showed that they had the more determined pack with Tom Travis and Arron Waggoner more than holding their own against some big opposition. Ormskirk’s half backs, Harry James and Robbie Jones were placed under excessively heavy pressure but still managed to use the ball effectively with a good kicking game from Robbie.
The match continued in the same vein with Ormskirk’s pack showing superb rucking skills, driving back the boys in black and orange and providing a solid platform to recycle the ball. The determinatin of the ‘Kirk pack developed into some good drives and on one such occasion Marcus Rylance stood up and with the support of the other forwards drove over to score the game’s first try, converted by Michael Lea.
The game continued with very much the same intensity with Ormskirk continuing to tackle well and then spending long periods in the oppositions half. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, against the run of play Leigh broke free to score. With the conversion this left the game all square at seven points apiece.
The status quo continued at the same tempo with Ormskirk driving over in the rucks leaving clear ball for the backs whose attacking options were constantly thwarted by a resolute Leigh team. The Ormskirk lads now well established will to win, along with their considerable spirit maintained the strong performance from start to finish. The final whistle blew with the lads once again having raised the bar in terms of performance.
At the start of the season the coaches had promised that the boy’s rugby skills and their game play would improve, boy have they proven us right !
