Wirral Overcome Northwich in Heavy Conditions

Wirral achieved a league double over Nwich after a hard fought game in heavy conditions with the
second half being played in the rain. This was achieved with a couple of changes to the team that
defeated Anselmians a fortnight ago, WILL MORRIS played on the wing and in the forwards LEWIS
HEYES played in the second row alongside SAM VICKERS with HAYDEN LONG playing in the back row
alongside JOSH STEAD and BEN BROOKS. The subs were CHRIS SPEED, DAN CARROL and CHRIS
DERMODY.
The opening play was in mid field with teams looking to kick long to gain ground on this heavy pitch
with much ball being dropped. An interception enabled Nwich to advance downfield and on 19
minutes, the home side took the lead when the ball came out wide on the right and enabled the
Nwich fly half to score close to the corner flag, the conversion just went wide, 5-0 (19 minutes).
Wirral continued to press and looked dangerous with ball in hand, on 24 mins the ball was dropped
but CHRIS CROWLEY recovered broke through and an inside pass enabled RHYS JAMES to cross the
line unopposed under the posts, JIMMY ANNETTS converted, 5-7 (24 mins). Two minutes later Nwich
regained the lead with a penalty from 35m, just left of the posts, 8-7. Immediately from the restart
Wirral were awarded a penalty some 32m out but this was missed.
The rest of the half was good play by Wirral aided by good passing and on 30 mins a try was
disallowed for a forward pass. This was followed by a long 50-20 kick by RHYS JAMES which set up
play again in the Nwich 20m area and on 37 minutes, Wirral took the lead with another penalty by
JIMMY ANNETTS to leave the score 8-10 at half time.
As predicted by the weather forecast the rain began to fall at 3.00pm which made conditions even
more difficult, again Wirral pressing when the ball was dropped, CHRIS CROWLEY picked up and ran
through the Nwich defence to score under the posts, again converted by JIMMY ANNETTS to leave
Wirral ahead, 8-17 (46 mins). The pressure then came from Wirral but strong tackling by Nwich
prevented Wirral from scoring. On 54 mins, Wirral had another try disallowed as foot in touch in the
corner when touching down. From this position in the Nwich 20 area, the third try was scored from
the forwards pressing the Nwich line, SAM VICKERS was stopped short but a short pass to LEWIS
HAYES enabled him to touch down for his first try of the season duly converted by JIMMY ANNETTS
to increase the Wirral lead to 8-24. (57 mins).
On 61 minutes a further break by JIMMY ANNETTS almost set up another try when the scoring pass
didn’t quite go to hand. On 67 mins after good pressure by Nwich enabled their backs to create
space on the right to score in the corner, the try was not converted, 13-24 (67 mins). Again Wirral
continued to pressure Nwich and the try bonus point came when a break by MARK WILLIAMS passed
to RHYS JAMES who went in for his second try, scoring under the posts, duly converted by JIMMY
ANNETTS to give Wirral a commanding 31-13 win given that Nwich had won their last 2 matches.
Wirral remain in 4 th place 3 points above Manchester and their next match is in a fortnight’s time
against KENDAL it being vice presidents lunch before the game with a kick off at 2.15pm.

Towards the end of the game, Wirral made some changes with CHRIS SPEED coming on for JOSH
STEAD, allowing the latter to move to scrum half with TOM AKEHURST moving to the wing in place of
DAN HARVEY and CHRIS CURRY. DAN CARROL had come on for ADAM DON during the second half.
This was a strong performance by Wirral in difficult conditions and a good effort to pick up a bonus
point win