Wirral Through to The Papa John's Plate Final

The semi final tie of the Papa John’s Plate was played at the Memorial Ground against Stockport
whom we had already played twice in our league campaign, with each side having won their home
games, Wirral were fortunate in having a home draw.
The Wirral team were very similar to previous weeks with CHRIS SPEED returning to the forwards
along with JOE ADNAMS back in the front row, the backs were as in the previous week. The
substitutes being DAN CARROL, LEON TAHANA,SAM VICKERS, CHRIS DERMODY, CHRIS BURROWS,
JIMMY ANNETTS (now fully fit) and GEORGE BURROWS.
Wirral were playing with the slight wind advantage towards the clubhouse in the first half and in the
early minutes it was Wirral who were applying the pressure with one attempt being denied by being
deemed as held up over the line. From the next set of moves, JOSH STEAD received an injury and he
was replaced by CHRIS BURROWS. Josh perhaps needs a couple of stitches. Eventually Stockport was
able to clear through two free kicks.
On 12 minutes came the first points when from a quickly taken free kick the ball came out to the
right and TOM COLE was able to pass on to RHYS JAMES who cut through from 20m out to score
close to the posts, duly converted by BEN BROOKS, 7-0. All the pressure in the game was coming
from Wirral and continued play in the Southport half resulted in captain, CHRIS CROWLEY scoring
out wide, not converted, 12-0 (21 minutes).
There then entered a surge in teams kicking long trying to gain advantage, in the 25 th minutes, that
well known kicker, CHRIS SPEED put in a towering spinning kick which Stockport took to control by
foot which bobbled away from the intended catcher and TOM AKEHURST was first to react with a
kick ahead and race to the line, where he picked up and laid down behind the posts, converted by
BEN BROOKS, 19-0.
Wirral continued to press but could not add any further tries before half time even though stopped
short on a number of occasions. A short line out to MATT DALTON was passed on to MATT RINGER
who made 25m through Stockport ground before being halted 5m from the try line. The final event
of the half came in the 39 th minute when Wirral were rewarded with a penalty 43 metres out and
this was duly converted by BEN BROOKS, 22-0 (half time).
At half time, ADAM DON and CHRIS SPEED came off and were replaced by LEON TAHANA and JOSH
STEAD (now recovered sufficiently to play on). The wind appeared to be stronger in the second half
as Stockport used it to gain valuable ground as they began to use their forwards more to make
progress up the field. Wirral themselves continued to make progress downfield and after pressure in
the Stockpot 20m area and then line, their 4 th try came from HAYDEN LONG who used his weight and
height to cross for his 8 th try of the season, duly converted by BEN BROOKS. 29-0 (46 th minute).After
60 minutes, Wirral made further changes with JOSH STEAD and JOE ADNAMS being replaced by
CHRIS DERMODY and DAN CARROL.
On 69 minutes, pressure from Stockport and controlled pushes towards the Wirral line resulted in
the second row, TOM METCALFE scoring the kick was missed from close to the posts, 29-5. At this
time Wirral made further changes with hooker, MATT RINGER being replaced by DON CARROL and
captain, CHRIS CROWLEY being replaced by GEORGE BURROWS and thus a change in the back
division. In the space of 5 minutes aided by penalties in their favour, Stockport were back in the
Wirral 20 area and were rewarded with two tries, one of which was converted to reduce the Wirral
lead to 29-17.The final minutes again saw Wirral exerting pressure on the Stockport line and had

several chances to add to their score. CHRIS SPEED was sin binned for an incident with 1 minute to
go. The final action of the match saw BEN BROOKS having a penalty from some 50m out against the
wind, it failed but WIRRAL were then able to hold Stockport back in their half of the field until the
final whistle blew.
The final match next week is at the Worcester Sixways Stadium where Wirral will play OUNDLE from
Northamptonshire for the Papa John’s Cup, the match is late in the afternoon as it is the last of the 3
matches being played that afternoon. There will be two coaches going, one for the team and those
staying overnight and the other will be there and back in the day.
It is pleasing to note that the THIRD team won their League Cup this afternoon playing away at
GLOSSOP by the small margin of 27-26, well done to the hard work put in by the team and
supporters over the past season.
Richard McNeil