First Half Points secure Win Against Stockport

Following injuries and players being unavailable Wirral had to make a number of changes for the match against Stockport, who beat us twice last year in the league. Wirral recalled two veterans to the first team with CRAIG HARVEY in for JAMES ANNETTS at fly half and ROB PEARL in for MATT RINGER. LEWIS HAYES started in the second row in place of JACK WALSH (on the subs bench). BEN BROOKS returned to the centre with DAN HARVEY moving to the wing. The two other subs were SAM BROADBENT and CHRIS DERMODY.
Wirral played against the wind towards the road in the first half. It was Stockport who started the stronger and were 0-5 up after 3 minutes when a swift ball down the wing enabled Stockport winger, Rory Atwill scoring. It was the away side who were doing all the attacking in the opening minutes and had two tries disallowed for being held up over the line and for a forward pass. On 10 mins CRAIG HARVEY was sin binned.
Gradually Wirral worked their way into the game and on 19 minutes a quickly taken penalty some 10m from the Stockport enabled TOM AKEHURST to make progress before putting in JOE ADNAMS to score in the corner, MARK WILLIAMS converted from the touchline, 7-5 (19 mins).
On 23 mins, Stockport’s scrum half was sin binned but it needed good defence from Wirral to keep Stockport out, until a long CRAIG HARVEY kick to the 20m area gave Wirral the opportunity to attack again. A further Stockport yellow card left them on 14 players again. From this area, Wirral went wide again and TOM AKEHURST was on hand to put in DAN HARVEY to score in the corner, again converted by MARK WILLIAMS from the touchline. 14-5 (33 mins).
This was quickly followed by what could be “the try of the season”, a bout of kicking left MARK WILLIAMS catching the ball deep in the home 20m area, where he caught and advanced down the field beating a number of Stockport players before drawing the full back and passing to TOM AKEHURST who broke through to score, duly converted by MARK himself, 21-5 (38 mins). From the kick off by Stockport this was collected by Wirral, a break by DAN HARVEY, passed out to EVAN ROBINSON who made a break downfield before passing on to RHYS JAMES who raced away to score under the posts (try bonus point), duly converted by MARK WILLIAMS to leave the score 28-5 at half
time, with Wirral again pressing the Stockport line.
At half time, JACK LISTER came on for LEWIS HAYES, with CRAIG HARVEY leaving with SAM BRAODBENT coming into the backs with DAN HARVEY going to fly half. The second half commenced with Wirral now applying pressure on Stockport with a number of 5m scrums/line outs but could not get over the white wash; a try was scored but declined due to Wirral crossing. On 50 mins LEWIS HAYES came on for ADAM DON, 4 minutes later CHRIS DERMODY came on for ROB PEARL.
Wirral missed a try when an attack resulted in the final pass not reaching the player but the pressure was coming from Wirral and could not get that 5 th try. On 69 mins, SAM BROADBENT was sin binned for a high tackle.
The final minutes saw some pressure from Stockport but Wirral were able to clear. In the final play
of the day, Stockport centre, Luke Simpson burst through from 50m out to score, the conversion was missed and the referee blew for time.
This win pushes Wirral up to 6th in the league and next week Wirral are away at league leaders Blackburn, 3.00pm kick off.