This weekend saw the Under 14s welcome Rochdale to Green Lane in a must win Lancashire Cup match for both sides. To add to the interest this was a re-run of last season’s Lancashire Plate Final won convincingly by ‘Kirk and a tough match was predicted.
As usual the team was hit by late withdrawals due to illness and injury but such is the strength in depth of the squad the coaches were not too worried and had every faith in the players selected. Ormskirk kicked off, hampered by a strong wind cutting right across the park. Early signs were good as the lads had two early attacks which tested the Rocdale backs and were only stopped from scoring by two knock-ons in quick succession. However it was not long before a good driving maul near the ‘Dale line saw Kyle Hoy spot a gap to go through and score the first try of the game. From the kick off Rochdale looked set to attack but a thumping tackle by James Owens saw them knocked back. Rochdale re-grouped and attacked again but excellent tackling saw them come away from The ‘Kirk line without a point. Now it was time for the lads to attack themselves and a great run from prop Tom Travis saw Ormskirk win an attacking scrum.Andy Jones comfortably won the scrum and Matty Jones released the backs allowing full-back Matt White to go in at the corner with Tom Povey superbly adding the extras.Rochdale were quick to get back on the attack and were soon driving the ball forward but good defensive work saw ‘Kirk win an attacking scrum. The ball was picked up well by Craig Ennis and he ran half the length of the field to go in for try three. Ormskirk ended the half in control and from another foray into the Rochdale half, Tom Povey saw a gap in the line and glided through to score his first of the game.
Half-time: Ormskirk 22  Rochdale 0
Rochdale kicked off the second half and were keen to get back into the game.However in their first real attack a great tackle by James Woods knocked them right back.This allowed another raid into the Rochdale half and soon ‘Kirk were awarded a penalty just five yards from the line. Rochdale had no answer to the power of Craig Ennis who took the ball at pace and barged through for his second try of the game with Tom Povey again adding the conversion.Ormskirk then saw a lot of possession in the opponent’s half but to be fair Rochdale stuck manfully to their task and were certainly not prepared to give Ormskirk a ’soft’ try. From a kick out of their ‘22′ Tom Anderson charged to the line and when tackled, brilliantly off-loaded to Tom Povey who was bundled into touch just inches from the line. In the next attack a good move by the forwards almost saw another try but the ball was lost in the act of scoring.However it was not long before Tom Povey put the icing on the cake with his second try of the game right on the final whistle.
Full-time: Ormskirk 30*  Rochdale 0
Great credit must go to both sides for serving up an entertaining game in pretty atrocious conditions. There was relief in the Ormskirk camp at putting the first winning points on the board in this season’s Lancashire Cup. The coaches though are still very cautious with hard games before Christmas against West Park and Broughton which will test the lads to their limits.
