Wirral Lose by One Point in Cheshire Vase

For the first round of the Cheshire Vase, Wirral were drawn away to near neighbours, Anselmians and fielded an experimental side with a number of first team squad members not being available. The squad included 4 Under 21’s all of whom were making their debuts. This season we will be without our leading try scorer for the past few seasons, Ali Baker who has to have knee surgery in the next few weeks and recuperation will take the rest of the season, best of luck Ali.
The team was Hughes, Green, Pendergast, Hodson, Doneo, Ludbrook, Pearl, Dyer, Slater, Annetts, Gidman, Harvey C, Donaldson, Atkinson, Harvey D. The substitutes were Mattey, Gwyn, Yarker, and Burkes.
Wirral were playing down the slope in the first half and the first score came after 2 minutes when Anselmians had a penalty from which Wirral obtained possession and passed the ball down the backs, where James Annetts made an outside break and made some 50m before passing inside to Craig Harvey who ran in from 20m to score. He converted his own try 0-7.
Play switched from end to end, Ollie Atkinson caught and marked a high ball near his own line and the clearance kick saw play in the Anselmians 20m area, where the ball bobbled free, Rob Pearl picked up and scored in the corner only for the referee to disallow for a knock on. At this stage, Rob had to leave the field for a blood bin as he had a gash on his eyebrow; Phil Gwyn deputized for a few minutes until Rob got patched up.
It was apparent that Anselmians were looking to make progress up field through their forwards and the astute kicking of fly half, Simon Mason, whilst Wirral were looking to use their backs but passes were not quite going to hand. On 23 minutes Wirral extended their lead with a penalty from 42m through Craig Harvey to extend the lead to 0-10. Three minutes later, one of Anselmians new recruits, Karl Temmen ,was yellow carded for over robust play.
However 3 mins later, Anselmians were on the score card with a penalty from Simon Mason from 37m. Wirral were putting pressure on the Anselmians scrum by tackling the new Samoan No 8 as he picked up from the back of the scrum but Wirral were not able to take advantage of the situation. The lead was further reduced with another Simon Mason penalty from 36m and for the remainder of the half saw Anselmians pressuring the Wirral line but the away side managed to keep their line intact. Half time the score was 6-10
Early in the second half, Wirral took off Ollie Atkinson as a precaution (hamstring twinge) and Jonathan Mattey came on for his debut. Wirral continued to use their backs where possible with James Annetts making a number of probing runs. We then saw a period of pressure from Anselmians on the Wirral line with a number of thrusts from the forwards, the ball was passed out wide and two passes later saw the left winger squeeze in at the corner to give the home side the lead, the conversion was missed. A further penalty was missed by Simon Mason two minutes later. At this stage, Jack Yarker came on for Colin Dyer into the second row, with David Doneo going to back row.
Two further penalties were missed by Wirral before they took the lead on 30 mins with a penalty from 40m through Craig Harvey, when Mark Petterson was sent off immediately by the referee for what appeared to be a kicking offence. On 34 mins, Simon Mason had the chance to take the lead with a penalty from 30m but this was missed. Gareth Burkes came on for Chris Hughes.
Anselmians continued to exert pressure but again Wirral made occasional breaks but could not finish them off with the final pass not going to hand. With play well into injury time, Anselmians were awarded a penalty for off side in front of the posts from which the substitute kicker converted to give the home side the slender 14-13 scoreline. Even then Wirral came back to attack the Anselmians line and a fumbled pass gave Wirral a scrum some 5 metres out, from the scrum David Doneo picked up and forced his way over to score only for the referee to disallow and thus end Wirral’s chances of advancing in the Cheshire Vase.
With this young side, Wirral can feel proud of almost pulling off victory, on another day with the penalties converted and tries being allowed they may have achieved such a victory. Wirral welcomed this first full match of the summer as preparation for next week’s opening league fixture against Widnes (Away).

Richard Mcneil