Due to an amended fixture the under 13s found themselves travelling down the East Lancs on Sunday to play the usually well drilled and organised Leigh team. After two close games with Leigh last season, Ormskirk’s coaches were looking at this game as a guage to see how the team were progressing. Although a couple of players down from last week the side still travelled with 8 substitutes which left the coaches the difficulty of making changes, perhaps at crucial times, to ensure everyone got fair game time.
The match kicked off with Ormskirk firmly in the ascendancy,inspiration perhaps being drawn from the England World Cup victory the night before. The Ormskirk pack soon started to dominate, driving over and clearing out well in the rucks. It was inevitable that this sort of play would bring its rewards and with only five minutes on the clock Craig Ennis drove the ball over the line  to hoist the first points onto the board.The forwards continued to dominate providing scrum half Harry James with plenty of quality ball with which to get the rest of the backs moving.Weeks of training is now showing in the improvements in all areas of play and in individual performances. The second try, when it came, was from a chase by Craig Ennis who somehow stole the ball from their fly-half and sprinted away to score under the posts nicely converted by Graham Bishop. Towards the break man of the half Craig Ennis once again used his strength to win the ball from a maul near the half-way line and outsprinted  the chasing defence to score under the posts leaving an easy conversion for Graham Bishop.
In spite of several half-time changes in personnel the second-half continued as the first had ended with Ormskirk in control with the pack providing the backs with plenty of quality ball to run with.Five minutes into the half the back row again came up trumps. No.8 Olly Hogan with a poweful run streaked away to score under the posts leaving Graham Bishop another easy conversion. Eight minutes later the ball was spun out by Matt Jones to Tom Povey who made a deft pass on the inside to a full flight Olly Hogan who broke through the defensive line to score yet another try under the posts and an easy conversion for Graham Bishop. The result was confirmed by the team try of the day. The forwards again secured good ball and with quality ball presentation the chain reaction commenced-it was passed along the whole back line,each player drawing the defence before passing, the series of events ending in the hands of Robbie Jones who was having his first crack at full-back. This extra player provided the overlap for a well earned try for the backs and also allowed Graham Bishop to earn his fifth conversion of the game.
Full-Time:   Leigh 0  Ormskirk 40
The coaches were highly delighted with the performance particularly as the rolling replacements and positional changes made no apparant difference to the team performance on the day. Again the win demonstrates how far the team have come in a short space of time and reflects the improving skills throughout the squad and the excellent interplay between forwards and backs. Well done Guys!
