Sheffield Kick Their Way to Victory

For the last long away game of 2015, Wirral made the journey to Sheffield to the Abbeydale complex where it was raining on arrival and only got worse as the afternoon progressed.
Again there were changes to the side with JACK YARKER not recovering from his shoulder injury and another week of rest should greatly improve matters. STEVE PENDERGAST continues to deputise with MATT BROWN being the replacement prop, for his first appearance in the first team squad since February. PAUL LEWIS returned from best man duties to partner RYAN STEAD in the second row. The rest of the team was as against Ilkley with MIKE WARREN joining the subs bench.
Within the first minute, CHRIS HUGHES had to leave the field with a blood injury so MATT BROWN was quickly into action. It was obvious from the start that Sheffield were going to be playing a kicking game and their angled kicks to touch were giving them the advantage. A kick downfield was fielded by Sheffield and on a counter attack, winger Morley made a break, drew the full back and left wing forward, Jonny France with a clear run to the line. The try was not converted. 5-0 (5 mins). CHRIS HUGHES returned to the game.
Wirral had opportunities to kick for goal but these were spurned as they went for line outs etc. although at this stage they were having difficulty in wining ball from these areas. On 18 mins after pressure from Wirral the ball went wide where MARK WILLIAMS touched down only the touch judge to indicate a foot was in touch. On 28 minutes Wirral reduced the arrears with a penalty by DAN HARVEY, 5-3. No sooner had we scored when at the other end we gave away another penalty which Cribley kicked to restore Sheffield’s 3 point lead.
CHRIS SPEED went down injured and was replaced by MIKE WARREN, with the referee deeming that as it was a head injury he could not take any further part in the game. At virtually the same time, SAM BROADBENT suffered a cut to the head but resumed playing once he was bandaged up. In the final minute of the first half, Cribley added a further penalty to extend the lead to 11-3.
At half time, Wirral were still of the belief that they could get something out of this game but it was Sheffield who scored each time they ventured into the Wirral half and the away side had not taken full advantage of the chances offered.
With a quick turn round at half time MATT BROWN came on for STEVEN PENDERGAST, the second half started in the same vein as the first half finished with Sheffield having three kickable penalties, two of which they converted to give Sheffield a 17-3 lead. On 54 minutes, JAMES REEVE came on for RYAN STEAD.
On 60 mins, Wirral lost their own put in which allowed wing forward Fawdry to force his way over from close range under the posts, duly converted. 24-3. 65 mins RYAN STEAD back on for PAUL LEWIS. Wirral gained some momentum and were rewarded 3 penalties on the run (no yellow card!) and at this stage Wirral needed tries if they were going to take something out of this game.
In the final 10 minutes, Sheffield resorted to their kicking game with grubber kicks ensuring touch was found. In this period they scored 2 further tries both converted which gave them a try bonus point and gave them a flattering 38-3 score line. The match finished with Wirral playing with 14 as ROB PEARL retired from the game 5 minutes from the end.
It was not one of Wirral’s best performances and it was Sheffield who adapted to the referee and the conditions better aided by their kicking game and driving the ball into the corners. Whilst Sheffield were able to convert the penalties in their favour into points, Wirral gave away fewer penalties 10 as opposed to Sheffield 13. The penalties did not unfortunately come in kickable positions.
The good news was that the coach made a quick journey home and the alicadoos had survived their weekend of “sightseeing” in Sheffield.
Richard McNeil