Wirral 'Sale' Away With An Historic Win

As in that game the result was in doubt until the final whistle.
There were two changes to the side that played against Manchester, with TOM BOWLING coming on to the subs bench to give MIKE WARREN a full game against Sale 2nds. ALI BAKER had to withdraw with a hamstring injury incurred in training on Thursday so ADAM SHELDON came into the side.
The pitch at Sale was in good condition and with little wind the playing conditions were ideal.
From the kick off, it was apparent that both teams were looking to play open football with both teams making progress. Wirral were capitalizing on the errors being made by Sale and made the hard yards up the field. The first chance came to Wirral when DANNY HARVEY on a crash ball was hauled down a metre from the line and further pressure came from Wirral but were not able to score.
The first kickable penalty fell to Wirral for an off side decision, 25m out and 10m in from touch which CRAIG HARVEY converted, little knowing how vital this score was to be at the end of the game. 0-3 (11 mins). Further pressure was exerted by Wirral who again advanced play into the Sale 20m area, several thrusts were thwarted until a half break by SAM BROADBENT passing onto ROSS PAGE, the latter being tackled 2 metres from the line but a flick pass saw CRAIG HARVEY collect and crash over close to the posts with CRAIG HARVEY converting to give Wirral a 0-10 lead (15 mins).
Sale attacked through their centre, Matthew Simpson and a half break resulted in his kick through being collected and cleared by Wirral to half way. From a scrum 50m out and 10m in from touch saw JOE MURRAY collect the ball from the base and went blind, putting in a kick over the Sale left winger, who failed to collect, the ball bounced allowing Joe to collect and run in from 15m to dive over in the corner. The conversion just failed. 0-15 (20mins).
The game flowed between the two halves but again Wirral had a presence in the Sale 20m area and the scrum was pushing Sale back. On the second 5m scrum, JOE MURRAY picked up and went blind to dive over the line between two would be tacklers to score 10m in from the corner flag and again converted by CRAIG HARVEY to give Wirral a deserved 0-22 lead after 28 mins.
Back came Sale taking play to the Wirral 20m area where they turned down penalty kicks and went for 5m line outs. Sale turned on the pressure but Wirral held out even though Sale had 3 further penalties on the trot. A further free kick in mid field saw the Sale forwards pounding in and on the stroke of half time, the ball was stolen by Wirral and a huge relieving kick by JAMES ANNETTS saw the end of the half, with a score line that Wirral could have only dreamed off.
At half time, JACK YARKER came on for RYAN HIGGINSON.
As was expected Sale came back with all guns blazing but Wirral held out until the 50th minute when Sale had a scrum 5m out and with the help of some of their backs pushing the scrum the No8 Jonathan Keep scored, the conversion was missed. 5-22 (50 mins). A further 5m line out resulted in a Sale catcher falling and the referee indicated that he had been brought down illegally and ROB PEARL was asked to take a 10 minute break. With one light in the scrum, scrum half Ciaran Connolly took advantage to dive over with the try being converted by Joshua Longmore. 12-22 (60 mins).
Further pressure from Sale saw them again attacking the Wirral line and resulted in ROSS PAGE being asked to take a 10 minute rest for a misdemeanor. Wirral were thus down to 13 for a few minutes. From the resultant scrum with only 6 in the pack saw the Sale No 8 Jonathan Keep pick up to dive over and score, with the try being converted by Longmore. 19-22 (67mins)
The final 12 minutes plus stoppage time was played out in mid field with the Wirral defence holding out the repeated thrusts from the Sale forwards although Wirral were aware of the speed of the Sale wingers and thus tackled strongly to prevent the ball going wide. On 77 mins Sale had a penalty opportunity from 30m from the posts but wide out to equalise but the ball sailed wide. The final 8 mins with the away team back to 15 saw Wirral on the attack and contain Sale in their own half and with that the final whistle was blown much to the relief to the many supporters who made the journey down the M56.
All the players deserve praise for their 110% commitment as was the case in the home game against Sale and got their just rewards for their efforts.
This was an historic win from this young Wirral side and with other results going Wirral’s way saw them climb to 6th in the league with games in hand. Next week sees Wirral take on Widnes who are 5th in the league and who themselves had defeated Sale at home the previous week.
Richard McNeil

Match report from Sale