Wirral Lose to Local Rivals

Both teams were looking forward to this game where 4th played 2nd at Eastham in what was perfect playing conditions, however the star of the game was the referee, who was watching a different game to the rest of the spectators. Having said that, Wirral only had themselves to blame for losing this game even though they outscored Anselmians 4 to 2 in the try scoring.

Wirral played the same team as last week, with Brown, Clegg and Harvey on the bench

Anselmians kicked off playing up the slope and from the resulting maul, Sam Broadbent had the opportunity to clear but passed the ball under our posts, the pass did reach its intended receiver but was down by his feet. The home side capitalised on the mistake, winning the maul resulting and forcing their way over with less than a minute gone. The try was converted 7- 0.

On the first occasion Wirral tried to attack Anselmians were offside and from 30m out, Sam converted. 7-3. From the kick off, Wirral collected and were looking to clear when the kick was charged down. From the resultant play, the Anselmians stand off put in a cross kick which should have been covered by the 2 Wirral players but they reacted too slowly allowing their winger following up to collect and score in the corner, hitting the corner flag as he went over. Under the revised rules, this is OK and after some deliberation the ref. awarded the try, it was not converted. 12-3.

Wirral then started getting their game together with good play down the left hand side with Harvey passing inside and further two passed resulted in Wirral scoring. In the meantime Harvey had been taken out late by the full back, an incident the ref. did not see but he had seen a forward pass even though he was behind play. After talking to the players and the Wirral officials who stepped in to avoid further fighting, he awarded the opposition the scrum. The minimum should have been a penalty.

Wirral continued to attack and missed an opportunity to score on the right when a clear chance was kicked over the short dead ball line. In this attack Ollie Atkinson retired through a hamstring injury. A further penalty for Anselmians some 30m out increased the score to 15-3.

Wirral continued to attack rather than the kicking game which the opposition continued, but with our continued open play and passing we made ground with the ball in hand. From a scrum 30m out, Alistair Childs went blind but failed to get his pass away . From the pressure exerted by Wirral long passes allowed Wirral to score 15 m from the posts but unfortunately the conversion was missed. 15-8.

However, Anselmians continued to press and they were rewarded with another penalty for offside. However a couple of minutes later a further penalty was missed when the Anselmians No 6 was sent to sin bin for deliberate off side offence. Half time arrived with the score 18-8.

No changes at half time. In the next 30 mins, Wirral were getting more and more frustrated due to the referee's decisions, as it appeared we were not being allowed to play our normal game, with their persistent off side which was not being seen. The referee was quick to state that Wirral were passing forward which was not the case. In the meantime, Anselmians continued to punish the misdemeanours with 3 further penalties increasing the score to 27-8.

Notwithstanding their frustrations, Wirral continued to play their 15 man rugby and were awarded a try by Ross Page in the 30th minute but the conversion was missed. This gave Wirral the confidence to attack and from a long way out, Wirral kicked forward and an error in the Anselmians backs, (as they are not used to receiving the ball), resulted in an error on their own line. A loose ball led to Clegg (on for Sherlock) diving on the ball over the line, with the try converted 27-20.

Wirral could see a chink of light and a further converted try would give them the opportunity to draw the game. With the game drawing to an end, Wirral continued to press, as we now they can, forced a score from Harvey in the corner. The conversion from the touch line was missed where upon the referee blew for time, leaving the final score at 27-25. The irony was that no extra time was played notwithstanding that the referee had indicated that there had been 3 minutes to play.

Wirral lost this game in the first 10 minutes by allowing (giving) Anselmians their 2 tries. Wirral scored 4 tries and only converted one, when our conversion rate before this match was some 80% plus. We had the chances to win missing some 12 points in goal kicks. Against the maturity of the Anselmians stand off showed through in the end with 5 penalties and one conversion.

It was a disappointing defeat given that Wirral were the only team trying to play running Rugby but the young team can only learn from this defeat.