Despite the rain this week, the match against Bowdon was played in bright sunshine, in ideal ground conditions with a slight breeze blowing down the field towards the clubhouse. Wirral played towards the main road in the first half.
The match was played in front of the Vice Presidents and we also welcomed the RUGBY FOOTBALL UNION- President Deborah Griffin.
Following the performance against Manchester two weeks ago, Wirral were able to make a number of changes, HAYDEN LONG was available and ALFIE KIMPTON returned after injury. Wirral also brought in two new props, making his debut was JOSEF HEALEY a 19 year old (who is leaving this week to join the Army but will be back to us when on leave) and we have borrowed JOHNSON CHANDIGERE from Macclesfield. The substitutes were DAN HARVEY, JAMES REEVE and JOHNSON.
The match started with Bowdon having much of the game in the Wirral half undertaking much kicking to gain ground. On 8 minutes had a penalty opportunity from 30m but this was not converted. On 16 minutes with a 5m line out Bowdon won the ball and the forwards were able to maul over the line to score, the conversion from wide out was missed. 0-5.
Eventually, Wirral took play into the Bowdon half and positive play took Wirral down to the Bowdon line where we were held up over the line where several attempts to cross the line were held up with some stiff tackling by Bowdon; a result of this resulted in the Bowdon winger being sin binned on 24 minutes. From a line out 5m out, Wirral pushed forward and were rewarded with a try by JIM LEVENE (his first for the first team) and from close to the touchline, RHYS JAMES converted to give Wirral a 7-5 lead (34 mins).
From the kick-off, Wirral were back down in the Bowdon half but continued strong defence kept Wirral out. JOHNSON CHANDIGERE (on his debut for the club) came on for JOSEF HEALEY (39 minutes) in the short period before half time.
At the start of the second half, Wirral were soon attacking and on 43 minutes, the home side scored their second try when from the first 5m line out, Wirral crossed the line but the try was disallowed as not been grounded but the referee had given Wirral another penalty and from the 5m line out the ball was caught and Wirral pushed forward over the line with MATT RINGER touching down 5m from the touchline and duly converted by RHYS JAMES, 14-5 (45 minutes). From the kick-off caught by Wirral and an astute kick saw the ball bounce into touch in the Bowdon 20m area. Bowdon won the line out and were looking to clear when a pass out was intercepted by MATT RINGER and won the race from 20m out to score, another great conversion from RHYS JAMES saw the Wirral lead extended to 21-5. This try by MATT made him the leading try scorer of the team this season. Wirral had scored 14 points in 4 minutes.
From the next play, fly half, MARK WILLIAMS suffered an injury to his leg which resulted in Bowdon again attacking downfield but knocked on with a try looking possible thus Wirral were able to clear. On 57 minutes, Wirral close to the Bowdon line scored their try bonus point when ZANE PRETORIUS scored out wide, the conversion was missed 26-5 (57 minutes). This stage of the match enabled Wirral to take off the hobbling MARK WILLIAMS to be replaced by DAN HARVEY (with Dan going to full back and RHYS JAMES going to fly half). JIM LEVENE and JOHNSON CHANDIGERE were replaced by JAMES REEVE and JOSEF HEALEY respectively.
Bowdon continued to attack but good defence from Wirral kept out the visitors. Wirral used the breeze well to keep play down in the Bowdon half and had pressure on the visitors line and several attempts at the line failed until a loose pass out to the left enabled HARRY HAWLEY pick up and score in the corner and from the touchline, RHYS JAMES converted to extend the lead to 33-5 (75 mins). In the last play of the game more attacking from Wirral resulted in a final try with the ball spun down the line, enabling RHYS JAMES to break, drawing the opposition before passing on to ALFIE KIMPTON who crossed over in the corner, the conversion just failed. The match was over with Wirral pleased to score 5 points and overhaul Manchester who lost at Stockport.
Wirral have a number of players not available for next week’s game at Anselmians with KIMPTON and ROBERTS not available and also possibly without MARK WILLIAMS (dependent on his leg injury improving).
On the adjacent pitch it was good to see the 2nd team defeat Fylde Hawks 36-22 and move up to 6th in that league. The 3rd team match was cancelled as Liverpool St. Helens could not raise a team but they still lie 3rd in the table, 2 points behind Helsby.