Ormskirk U14s 26pts - Fleetwood U14s 24pts
The u14s won a game they should have, needed to and did, but by a margin that was a little too close for comfort. With three key forwards injured and one unavailable it was another much changed pack that took the field, but to their credit they battled through the match with tons of spirit.
Captain Cecil Fairhurst nearly opened the scoring after a typical charge up the middle, but he was stopped short only to hand the ball over to centre Chris Nicholson who powered over to score. Fleetwood, with a number of notable additions to their squad this season fought back and pull ahead with a converted try after their powerful prop broke through some poor tackling. It was an end to end game typified by tremendous defence from the home side. From a probing kick by the visitors impressive fly half, Jonny Ford gathered well, Aidan Charlton broke from the ruck and fed Gavin Griffiths down the short side to score, he added the extras to put Ormskirk 12-7 ahead. From a scrum near the Ormskirk line, Griffiths’ clearance kick was excellently followed up by a half fit Eddie Webster, who clattered the receiver and stole the ball for Griffiths to kick ahead again. Eddie repeated the feat and Gav strolled over to score. Dan B adding the 2 points for a half time lead of 19-7. Game over everyone thought.
However, the visitors didn’t read the script and came back superbly with one well worked try and one dubious one. Held up over the line on his back the Fleetwood forward was allowed to hang on and wait for support who dived on top and muscled the ball to the ground. When everyone expected a penalty the ref awarded a try. Slack tackling let the boyant Fleetwood side over to narrow the lead to 19-17 and it seemed with Ormskirk at one point down to 14 men with further injuries to Eddie and Cecil, the game was about to slip away. Try telling Gav that, as he replaced Aidan at No.8, picked up from the scrum at left the defence flat footed to score in the corner. This was a hammer blow to the visitors, but the superb conversion from the touchline seemed to have snuffed out their resistance. However, they weren’t finished in a game that swung one way and then the other all morning. A converted try - again as a result of slack tackling made the score a nervous 26-24, but the home side held on for a win that leaves them top of Group B with a 100% record. A sign of a good side is winning when not playing very well, so cutting out the basic errors is key now. Mentions to George Lightfoot and Chris Nicholson (as ever) for excellent tackling and debutant Alex Morrell - a winger of great pace and promise. Next week’s home game with Warrington is now eagerly awaited.
Tries: Gavin Griffiths (3), Chris Nicholson. Cons: Griffiths (2), Dan Bailie.
Team: Ben Watherston, Marc Tasker, Cecil Fairhurst (c)(Michael Bradbury, 25), Daniel Price, Matthew Swords, Steve Maloney, George Lightfoot (Eddie Webster, 25), Aidan Charlton, Jonny Dunn, Adam Kirk, Jonny Ford, Chris Nicholson, Gavin Griffiths, Alex Morrell, Dan Bailie.
