Our first run out at home was against this very tough Lancaster opposition. In spite of absences, owing to the half term break, we were still able to field a squad of 20 players,including a brace on their initial club outing. Prior to kick off it was agreed that we would play three games in one.
Unfortunately we seemed to be slow out of the blocks,letting the big Vale side take two tries before we had apparently tied our laces or even put our gumshields in. At this point the midweek training seemed to have the desired effect as we started to see a little more ball, rucking well and some solid drives at rucks and mauls. Will Briscoe displayed his usual talent at stopping anything that dared to tread in his direction. The first half closed with Vale scoring another try albeit against the run of play. The team was re-shuffeled and we started again. Unfortunately the Vale team were just too strong for us and ran in four more tries.
After a further re-shuffle a difference could be seen, in particular the driving in the scrum showed a dominance that we had fleetingly seen the week before against Widnes in The Manchester Tournament. Throughout this half there were regular sparks of individuality, for instance a powerful run through the opposition pack from Robert Hall and another sterling captain’s role from Patrick Lloyd. Owing to the improved rucking and mauling from the whole team we saw much more of the ball and pushed the game up the park. Following another solid drive up to and then past the opposition 22 metre line the ball was re-cycled on the try line and presented to Marcus Rylance to score. Ormskirk continued to to show some consistency with some solid play across the whole team before the final whistle blew.
A good third half performance that we all enjoyed! Clearly there is still room for improvement, but as we demonstrated we can and do play real rugby when we listen and focus on our training.
