Wirral Lose to Rossendale

Wirral started our season at Rossendale, how fortunate to be playing there without the wind and the rain! Before the first team game, the second teams played with Rossendale winning 46-22. the away team did have injury problems with TOM STEVENS being taken from the field with a fractured ankle in the first half (I did not see the incident) and Will MORRIS in the second half where a hit from a Rossendale player with his head loosened some teeth. As a result Rossendale had 2 players red carded.
Moving on to the first team game, we had MARK EDWARDS ( scrum half) making his debut from the subs bench and after a number of seasons we saw CHRIS BURROWS making an appearance in the first team playing on the left wing. RHYS JAMES started the game at full back for his second game.
Wirral played uphill in the first half and within the first minute were 0-7 up when possession saw RHYS JAMES put CHRIS CROWLEY in for a try under the posts, duly converted by JAMES ANNETTS. A few minutes later a good clearance up the field saw Wirral putting pressure on the Rossendale line but could not make anything of it. On 13 minutes Rossendale broke through the Wirral defence to score by a player not on the programme sheet, duly converted by Lewis Allen, 7-7. Almost immediately Wirral were back in the lead when good backing up by TOM AKEHURST saw him on hand to finish the move and score, easily converted by JAMES ANNETTS, 7-14 (16 minutes).
Both teams were looking to move the ball as wide as possible to take advantage of the ground conditions. On 21 minutes, Rossendale equalised with a try from Anthony Bingham (AB) again converted by Lewis Allen (LA), 14-14. SAM BROADBENT came on for CONNOR MOORE in the back row. On 27 mins Rossendale took the lead for the first time when a kick through beat the Wirral defence and Zach Stephens won the race to touchdown, the try was not converted. 19-14.
Later in the half, Wirral had possession some 60m out, a kick over the defence by CHRIS CROWLEY was collected by him on the bounce and although the defence got back to cover, the pass to RHYS JAMES enabled the young full back to race to the line and touchdown, again converted by JAMES ANNETTS to enable Wirral to regain the lead at 19-21. Looking to retain the lead prior to half time BEN BROOKS made a long clearance downfield putting play back in the Rossendale half, however a couple of penalties enabled the home side to put pressure on the Wirral defence. LEWIS HAYES came on for ADAM DON. However Rossendale put pressure on the Wirral line and forced their way over the line with MATT LAMPREY touching down, again converted by LA to give them the lead at half time 26-21.
At the start of the second half, Rossendale immediately started attacking again with Liam Canning scoring from close to the line, again converted by LA. 33-21. In the next play Wirral kicked dead from 50m out which brought back play to the half way area and swift passing saw Adam Howard? scoring (the numbers on the programme did not match up to the players and the Rossendale squad were not able to advise who scored) LA converted 40-21 (51 mins).
On 53 mins the home side dropped the ball some 40m out, which Wirral kicked through and TOM AKEHURST won the race to touch down in the corner giving Wirral their try bonus point, the conversion was not made- 40-26. Prior to this newcomer, MARK EDWARDS came on to play at scrum half, with TOM AKEHURST moving to the wing allowing BEN BROOKS to move into the centre in place of JIM ANNETTS, the latter carrying a leg injury . CONNOR MOORE came on for SAM BROADBENT.
There followed a series of incidents with Anthony Bingham using his pace to score again, converted by LA 47-26. Wirral continued to attack where the game has held up after a high tackle on a Wirral player which created some problems, which surprisingly led to the Rossendale player Adam Howard and HAYDEN LONG being sin binned. The next try for Rossendale was scored in the corner by AB again, however CHRIS BURROWS was now sin binned, again the try was converted by LA 54-26.
A series of plays and penalties took Wirral down to 5m from the opposition line where pressure on saw a penalty try being awarded to Wirral, 54-33. The last play of the game saw Ross score their final try (9th) through AB again converted by LA.
This was a good performance by Wirral against a strong experienced Rossendale team with an obvious influence from Sale players, in the centre was Denny Solomona (England RU international and also played for Great Britain at Rugby League), Byron McGuigan (Scotland, Glasgow, Exeter and Sale)-played for Sale last season and the flying winger, Anthony Bingham (ex England, Jamaica, Sale, Fylde and Sedgley Park).
Next week Wirral are at home to Macclesfield (kick off 3.00pm).
Richard McNeil