Wirral Absorb Widnes Pressure to Win and Remain Top of the League

Wirral travelled to Widnes for this top four clash, with Widnes eager to avenge the defeat in the early part of the season and to maintain their own promotion aspirations. The tension leading up to the match was evident by the intensity of the home teams pre match warm up.

In the early exchanges, Wirral missed a penalty and two try scoring opportunities, due to strong defence by Widnes. Following the sin binning of a player from each side, Widnes converted a penalty and following further pressure the home side scored a push over try wide out, which was not converted, to give Widnes an 8-0 lead after 35 minutes.

The turning point of the match came some 4 minutes later with Wirral camped in the Widnes 22, when the Widnes hooker was red carded for a misdemeanour right in front of the referee. From this penalty Wirral were able to put pressure on the Widnes line, which resulted in Ross Page crashing over from short range to score, with the try being converted by Danny Harvey. 8 -7 to Widnes at half time.

15 minutes into the second half, Wirral back row substitute Ryan Harvey made a break from a scrum some 50m out and although stern tackling from Widnes prevented a try, the pressure exerted resulted in a 5m scrum. With the benefit of an extra man pushed the Widnes back and Ryan was on hand to pick up and dive over, the try was converted from wide out by Danny Harvey.

For the next 25 minutes, Wirral absorbed the Widnes pressure and although there were penalty scoring opportunities for the home side they spurned these in favour of going for the try and conversion, which would have given them victory. The match was in the balance until the final whistle and for the last 5 minutes Wirral had 2 players sin binned for technical offences therefore finishing with 13 players. Territorially, Widnes had the advantage but this young Wirral side dug in to win this important match leaving them in first place in this highly competitive league.