Valiant Wirral Just Fail to Upset Sale

For the final home game of the season, Wirral entertained second placed Sale in front of a good crowd on a dry but windy afternoon.
From the side selected, Wirral were forced to make changes minutes before the game when JACK YARKER, prop, had a hamstring problem, thus STEVE PENDERGAST came off the bench to start. With the second team away at Warrington being called off, Wirral were able to draft in GARETH BURKES as replacement prop. RYAN STEAD came back into the second row with CHRIS TYSON replacing JOE ADNAMS on the substitute’s bench. Wirral started the game with two wing forwards aged 19 and 20, TOM PARRY and CHRIS BURROWS respectively.
Wirral elected to play into the wind in the first half. From the kick off a Sale clearance was charged down and for the next 15 minutes Wirral penned Sale down in their 20m area. During this period Wirral were twice over the whitewash but the referee deemed the ball to have been held up- a situation not accepted by the Wirral forwards- where were the TV replays? During this period of play, Wirral turned down a penalty kick chance to keep the pressure on- the penalty had been the result of the young referee speaking sternly to the Sale prop, Joe Kelly.
It was only after 15 minutes that Sale managed to get into the Wirral half and great Wirral defence kept Sale at bay but on 21 minutes, Sale took the lead through a Liam McGovern penalty. 0-3. This was followed by a controversial incident which possible changed the course of the match- James Annetts fielded the ball and set off to attack, a kick over the Sale defence led to Sale prop, Kelly deliberately blocking (his second offence) the Wirral player, who retaliated by punching Kelly. The Sale player was yellow carded and surprisingly James was red carded, 25 mins. The penalty in Wirral’s favour was reversed and from this position up the field, a scrum 20m out resulted in a Sale back row move and Jonathan Keep crossed under the posts and McGovern converting to lead 0-10 (28 mins). At this stage, Sale scrum half left the field with a leg injury.
Despite being down to 14 men, Wirral came back at Sale and worked their way down to the Sale 20m area where a penalty in the home teams favour was quickly taken by ROB PEARL and a one pass later saw, CRAIG HARVEY powering over in the corner, with the same player superbly converting from the touchline against the wind.7-10 (32mins). In the minutes before half time, Sale increased their lead to 7-13 with another long range McGovern penalty. Wirral turned round pleased to have contained Sale to only a 6 point lead given the wind advantage they had enjoyed.
At the start of the second half, an astute kick by Wirral tool play to the Sale 20m and on winning the line out, the ball was spread quickly right where DAN HARVEY took on the Sale defence and when caught was able to release the ball to ALI BAKER who crossed in the corner, the conversion attempt from the touchline hit the upright but bounced into the field of play. 12-13 (42 mins).From the kick off came the try of the match, Sale kicked off caught by JOSH STEAD who fed CRAIG HARVEY who launched a high kick, SAM BROADBENT following up caught a difficult catch in full stride, before the Sale full back could get near the ball and immediately passed to the ever present, ROB PEARL who had a clear 45m run to score under the posts. The try was converted by CRAIG. 19-13 (43 mins).
The lead was short lived, as Wirral attacking again dropped the ball on the Sale 20m line, Sale responded the quicker and the ball came out to Chris Mayor who showed his premiership credentials as he split the Wirral defence and was only tackled as he scored in the corner. The try was well converted by McGovern. 19-20 (46 mins). Wirral retook the lead with a Craig Harvey penalty. 22-20 (50mins). GARETH BURKES came on for STEVE PENDERGAST.
The lead changed hands for the final time, when Wirral failed to find touch on the half way line, the Sale winger collected and cut inside before linking with Chris Mayor who had a run in for his second try, again converted. 22-27 (53 mins). Wirral continued to press but could not breakthrough the Sale defence and it was apparent that when Sale kept the ball in hand they were making progress despite the keen tackling from Wirral. On 66 minutes, MIKE WARREN came on for TOM PARRY, who had put in a tremendous tackling stint from this promising 19 year old. CHRIS TYSON also came on for PAUL LEWIS.
On 68 mins, Wirral were reduced to 13 men when GARETH BURKES was sin binned for a technical offence in the Sale half!! At the next breakdown, a Sale substitute, (who had been on the field a matter of minutes) was also sin binned- it was as though the referee traded one offence off against another. STEVE PENDERGAST had to re-join the front row at the next scrum at the expense of CHRIS BURROWS.
In the final 10 minutes and with greater possession and more space around the ground, Sale exploited the situation by scoring 3 further tries, through Matt Neary, Jack Moorhouse and Ciaran Connolly with one being converted to leave the final score 25-44, Wirral having kicked another penalty through CRAIG HARVEY. In the course of the final flurry of tries, Sale achieved their try bonus point and enabled them to keep pressure on Sandal at the top of the table who incidentally meet each other in the league decider at Sale next Saturday.
This was a valiant effort by the 14 men of Wirral against this Sale side and one is left to ponder what would the final outcome would have been with a full side. The final game of the season is next week where the 1st, 2nd and U 14 teams are away at Rossendale. It will be recalled that the first team drew with Rossendale in the first game of the season. Whilst there is a coach, space will be limited given that two senior teams and subs will be travelling in the 49 seater coach.
Richard McNeil