The under 14s travelled down to Aigburth cricket ground last weekend for their fixture against Liverpool Collegiate. The sun was shining although the pitch was a little soft. A good sized squad made the journey with places up for grabs for the big Lancashire Cup fixture against reigning champions Preston Grasshoppers the following weekend.
The game kicked off with Collegiate holding their own, however it was good phase play that led to the first breakthrough with Jamie Griffiths taking the final pass and going over for his first try of the season. The second was not long in coming when a traditional pass down the line found winger Tom Anderson who powered through to go over under the posts leaving an easy conversion for Michael Quirk. The back row of Craig Ennis,Harry James and Kyle Hoy set up the next opportunity with a fine maul with Matt Jones being held up short. However after some further excellent team play a probing cross field kick was well picked up by Jamie Griffiths to run in his second try of the game. From the kick off the forwards again took the initiative and after a powerful run by the ever improving Pat Lloyd, second rower Marcus Rylance forced his way over. After this Collegiate started to apply some pressure but ‘Kirks defence stood firm and then against the run of play the lads ran the ball from inside their own ‘22′ with the ball finally being passed from Olly Hogan to Tom Anderson who sprinted the length of the pitch to go in under the posts leaving another easy kick for Tom Povey.
Half-Time:  Collegiate 0  Ormskirk 34
With a large squad at their disposal Ormskirk’s coaches mixed it up for the second half and started to shuffle players and positions. ‘Kirk quickly gained the ascendency and after a penalty on the collegiate ‘22′ Luke Millington showed his usual determination to slice his way through with Tom Povey adding the extras. It was not long before a neat move down the backs eventually reaching Danny Holloran who found space and sprinted through to go in under the sticks with Tom Povey easily kicking the extras. Soon it was the turn of Rob Jones to show his silky running skills to go over for his first try of the season and Tom Povey again adding the conversion. Rob then released Pat Lloyd who converted a half chance into a try.Pat Lloyd finished off the game with a well judged run, sidestepping a tired and disheartened Collegiate defence to go in under the posts leaving Tom Povey an easy two points with the last kick of the game.
Full-Time: Collegiate 0  Ormskirk 69
After the game the coaches were pleased with the overall perfomance especially because of the team play shown and the ‘proper’ rugby on display. Everyone is in no doubt of the task next Sunday with the visitors being the reigning Lancashire champions, Preston Grasshoppers. However if the lads play to their potential there is no reason why they cannot push Preston all the way.
