First League Game and First Win of the Season

Not only was this the 1st league game of the season but it also saw the return of Warrington following a brief sojourn in division 2. The Wirral team showed a couple of changes from that which performed so well against New Brighton last week, Stu Hughes for an injured Ali Baker & the selection of Rob Pearl to start ahead of Colin Dyer must have been a difficult call to make for coach Andy McKinney.

The first half didn’t start too well for Wirral when after just a minute Warrington were awarded a penalty just too the left of the posts & inside the 22 metres – but luckily they missed the kick. Wirral then went straight back down the pitch and were awarded a penalty themselves to the right of the posts and just outside the Warrington 22 metre line and Sam Broadbent didn’t miss his first attempt – so 3 minutes gone and Wirral 3-0.

The first try of the game came after 7 minutes when Ali Childs made a blindside break down the left & passed inside to Sam Broadbent for him to score in the left-hand corner (8-0). Wirral continued to pressure Warrington & run the ball at every opportunity but this proved their undoing after 14 minutes when Ali Childs attempted a long miss pass which unfortunately was gratefully collected by the Warrington centre, K Hughes, for him to outpace the chasers & score wide out on the right. (8-5).

Wirral’s next try came after 25 minutes when Sam Broadbent scored following a great passage of play from deep – this had been preceded by Wirral managing not to score on at least 2 occasions when getting the basics wrong – Sam B converted his own try (15-5).

The remainder of the half saw Wirral piling the pressure on Warrington through their running and support play but they managed to avoid scoring & the half finished with the exchange referee from Gloucester Society, Dan Mobley, running out of patience with Warrington’s spoiling tactics & he sent one of their back row to the sin bin before blowing his whistle to end the half.

The opening 10 minutes of the 2nd half continued the way the previous half finished with Wirral putting Warrington under constant pressure with a 2nd yellow card against Warrington for a high tackle & it also saw 2nd row Tom Clegg, after another solid performance, being replaced by Colin Dyer. This period of play did finish with a try but not as the result of running rugby but the result of a forward drive which saw Chris Hughes being credited with the touchdown – Sam Broadbent kicked an excellent conversion from wide on the right (22-5).Wirral continued to dominate but then after 15 minutes they lost standoff, Olly Atkinson, with a muscle injury and he was replaced by Danny Harvey.

However after 16 minutes Wirral did score an excellent try through Stu Hughes following a penalty kick by Warrington from within their 22 metres not finding touch and Wirral ran the ball right back to score out wide left (27-5).

It was nearly halfway through the half before Warrington made any inroads into the Wirral half & they capitalised on the opportunity by scoring an excellent try by the same centre, K Hughes. (27-10).

The last score of the game came 5 minutes after the Warrington score and again went to Stu Hughes who scampered over following another spell of running rugby that started in Wirral’s half – Sam Broadbent converted (34-10). It also saw Matt Brown coming on due to an arm injury to 2nd row Martin Bennett.

The last 15 minutes was very scrappy with Wirral seeming to have lost the direction, pace, commitment and slick passing that they had shown previously. However in the end an important 1st league win against a dogged Warrington side who will probably win more than they lose especially at home.

Finally a word on the referee who from a spectator’s point of view was thought to have had a good game and certainly did everything he could to keep the game flowing & penalised any attempt at killing the ball.

Team: Chris Hughes, Jason Green, Steve Pendergast, Martin Bennett, Tom Clegg, Ross Page, Rob Pearl, Ben Marsh, Ali Childs, Olly Atkinson, Stu Hughes, Ian White, Adam Stevens, Matt Slater, Sam Broadbent: Subs – Danny Harvey, Matt Brown, Colin Dyer.

Leigh Bennett