The day of reckoning finally arrived with this last group game of the Lancashire Cup with both Ormskirk and Aldwinians needing to win to progress to the quarter final stage. Ormskirk suffered an early season defeat away at Aldwinians but played with a weakened team and so not a lot could be read into that game.
Ormskirk started the game brightly and some excellent early tackling by Craig Ennis and Tom Travis showed the boys were up for the fight. After some deadlock in the middle of the park a great break by centre Olly Hogan saw him scythe through the Aldwinians defence and just as he was caught he managed to offload the ball to winger Tom Anderson who went in at the corner to score. Aldwinians were in no mood to give up and came back strongly into the game.A great run was halted just shy of the ‘Kirk line but even though the lads won the ball a knock forward allowed Aldwinians to pick the ball up and go over for an easy score. Ormskirk kicked off and were soon back into an attacking mode.A bullocking run by prop Arron Waggoner saw the lads just shy of the try line with good Aldwinians tackling keeping them out. Eventually ‘kirk pressure reaped its just rewards when second rower Marcus Rylance made a superb drive to set up the ball for scrum half Matty Jones to dive over from close range. Again after kick off Ormskirk drove forward again but were held at bay by some well organised Aldwinians defence.
Half-time: Ormskirk 10   Aldwinians  5
Ormskirk kicked off for the second period and good pressure led to a knock on which gave ‘Kirk good field position but some sloppy mauling allowed Aldwinians to attack. Ormskirk however were tackling well and appeared to weather the storm when the ball was not cleared quickly enough and an excellent charge down led to an easy Aldwinians try which was then converted to rub salt in the wounds. To make matters worse, from the kick off Ormskirk were still half asleep and allowed Aldwinians to score a breakaway try from deep in their own half again easily converted. The lads now had a mountain to climb but once again came driving forward and putting the Aldwinian’s defensive line under severe pressure for several minutes. As is usually the case when battling against time a sloppy pass was well intercepted and Aldwinians raced away to put the icing on the cake with their fourth try of the game again converted.
Full-Time:  Ormskirk 10     Aldwinians 26
A cup competition which started with so much promise has ultimately ended in bitter disappointment. If a game was won by possession and territory Ormskirk would have won at a canter but the brutal truth is that points win games and Ormskirk did not do enough to break a well organised Aldwinians defence on enough occasions. A lot of the players are still learning their craft and the coaches know that with hard work and discipline that this team can go on to be one of the best teams in the area. The lads will now move on to the plate trophy and will look to put their disappointments behind them and give a good showing in the quarter finals due to be played in early March.
