Wirral Come Out on Top in a 10-try Thriller

For the 20 Wirral spectators who travelled to Morley, they witnessed a game which had everything, culminating in a match winning try with the last play of the game.
Wirral had to make a number of changes from last week’s game with JAMES REEVES (shoulder injury- out for 3 months) and JAMES ANNETTS (another shoulder injury) to join the others on the injury list. DANNY HARVEY moved to full back with PHIL DONALDSON moved into the centres.
From the kick off, Morley were on the attack helped by a Wirral knock on and used their forwards to make inroads into the Wirral 20m area. The attacks were stemmed but on 5 minutes, SAM BROADBENT was sin binned for a high tackle which all thought was rather harsh, the penalty kick from Chester, the Morley captain was missed. On 10 minutes, MATT LOON was sin binned for the same offence and Wirral were now down to 13.
The pressure told when the Morley centre, Amiral-Moody took the ball 5m out to cross over for a try, this was converted by Chester, 7-0 (14 mins). Further problems ensued for Wirral as CHRIS HUGHES left the field with an achilles problem and PHIL DONALDSON also departed with a shoulder injury. JACK YARKER and DAVID DONEO came on, with the latter initially playing in the centre. This meant that Wirral only had one substitute in which they could use their interchanges. Eventually MATT LOON moved to centre with CHRIS BURROWS moving to the wing and DAVID DONEO to the back row.
On 23 minutes Morley extended the lead when Bradley Marshall created an overlap on the opposite wing to cross wide out, the conversion was missed, 12-0. Gradually Wirral came into the game as they enjoyed a greater share of possession and on an attack a long pass was intercepted by the Morley full back, Karl Bradshaw, who had a clear run in from 75 m but was caught by CRAIG HARVEY, 20m short of the Wirral line. Wirral recovered and made progress up field before an astute kick to the corner from CRAIG HARVEY saw SAM BROADBENT react the quickest to score wide out, the conversion was missed. 12-5 (32 mins).
Morley were back in the Wirral 20m area but quick ball saw the Wirral backs make good progress down the field and this was followed by two penalties to Wirral, on the second, CRAIG HARVEY took this quickly to dive over under the posts and he duly converted , 12-12 (38mins). At this stage, both sides were playing attractive open rugby. Half time 12-12. PAUL LEWIS came on for ROSS PAGE.
With the slight breeze in their favour, Wirral started the second half with greater intensity and took the lead for the first time with a penalty from 22m by CRAIG HARVEY. 12-15 (42 mins). Wirral kept Morley penned down in their half helped by great touch finding kicks from fly half, Harvey. Eventually pressure told as Morley were held on their line and after a number of thrusts, the ball came out to the left and CRAIG HARVEY dived over from 2m out and with the conversion, Wirral extended their lead to 12-22 (52mins). The interesting aspect in the match was that the Wirral maul was making substantial progress forward when in possession.
As with Wirral in the first half, Morley came back into the game and were pressing Wirral. The Morley centre knocked on with the try line at his mercy but two minutes later, a well worked backs move saw the Morley left winger, Bradley Marshall cross for a try which was converted by Mark Chester and two minutes later, the same player (Chester) scored under the posts and then converted his own try to give Morley a 26-22 lead after 67 minutes. ROSS PAGE came on for DAVID DONEO.
With 8 minutes to go, Wirral were again attacking but not making progress against a resolute Morley defence, when DANNY HARVEY broke the line and drew the full back to put in ALI BAKER from 25m out to score under the posts, Craig converted to enable Wirral to retake the lead. 26-29 (73 mins). Wirral were holding Morley and looking to hold this lead, then with an attack down the left, Morley put a kick over the Wirral defence and the ball was heading for the try line with several players in contention for the touchdown, Wirral were first there but had deliberately handled the ball out of play. The referee awarded Morley a penalty try, even though there was no certainty of them scoring, the try was duly converted to give Morley a 33-29 lead (78 mins).
Wirral kicked off into the Morley half, the home side collected but Wirral gained control only to lose control, a scrum was awarded to Morley and this was the last play of the game. The ball went in and JASON GREEN took his third ball against the put in, Wirral now controlled their destiny, the ball came out to the right to MATT LOON who made progress before passing to ALI BAKER who beat two defenders to give him a 10m run to the try line, where he gleefully dived over to be then surrounded by his team mates. The conversion was missed but Wirral had their win by the briefest margin 33-34.
This was a magnificent win given the injuries suffered early in the game and the manner in which Morley had commenced the game. This win will give the players the confidence for the rest of the season as on reflection there is no reason why they should not have won before today’s match.
Next week Wirral are at home to Lymm in what should be an interesting game between these two Cheshire sides.
Richard McNeil