This was Wirral’s final home league game of the season, played in front of a large crowd in a
game that Wirral needed to win with 5 points to avoid playing in the relegation places but
this would be dependent on other results in the league this Saturday.
The match was played in windy conditions with the wind blowing across the pitch but in a
direction towards the cricket square.
Once again following the last match against Burton, Wirral this week were without HAYDEN
LONG, MARK WILLIAMS and ADAM DON all injured. Wirral were able to play JOE ADNAMS
and JOHNSON CHANDIGERE in the front row to add some ballast in the pack. In the backs
TOM CROFT was back on the wing, RHYS JAMES played fly half with WILL MORRIS playing at
full back. The subs were, DAN CARROL, JOE FURY and DAN HARVEY.
Wirral played towards the main road in the first half in the hope of capitalising on the wind
strength in the second half.
From the kick off the ball barely travelled 10+ metres but enabled Rochdale to be soon on
the attack and from the Wirral 20m area spun the ball out wide with the Rochdale right
winger squeezing in at the corner on the 2 nd minute, the conversion failed after hitting the
post. 0-5 (2 minutes).
There was pressure getting the ball away downfield which had to be done by using the
players to work hard to make progress. On 15m Wirral had play in the Rochdale 20m area
and had pressure on the line with a number of attempts at forcing the way over being
made. All this pressure led to the Rochdale fly half being sin binned for offences against
Wirral. Wirral knock on again within a couple of metres of the try line, giving Rochdale the
chance to clear downfield. MATT RINGER came on for DAN CARROL; the former had
suffered an injury earlier in the game.
In the final minutes of the first half, Rochdale were able to apply pressure on Wirral but the
team managed to restrain their attempts to score, including a try that was not deemed as
having been grounded- this resulted in the half time whistle going with Rochdale still ahead.
At the start of the second half, JOE FURY came on for JOHNSON CHANDIGERE. From the
kick-off Rochdale misjudged the catch giving Wirral the opportunity to attack immediately,
with the pressure the ball came out and swung left where RHYS JAMES fed BEN BROOKES
giving him a short run to the line to score 15m from the posts, the conversion attempt
unfortunately like Rochdale’s hit the upright and bounced clear to level the scores at 5-5 (43
minutes), that miss could have been decisive. Was this going to be the sign of another Wirral
second half recovery performance?
Wirral continued to press in the Rochdale half but matters were not helped with Wirral
losing balls at the line out and with their own scrums, as well as losing balls in the tackle. On
56 minutes, TOM COLE was injured and DAN HARVEY came on to cover, this was followed
by DAN CARROL coming on for JOE ADNAMS (64 minutes).
Continued pressure from Wirral but they could not make the progress through the Rochdale

defence even with a 5m line out. JOHNSON CHANDIGERE came on for JOE FURY (68
minutes). With so few breaks in the game, BEN BROOKS broke through only to be tackled
5m from the line. On 73 mins a break came from DAN HARVEY and with the full back coming
into tackle, he threw the ball to the left and JAMES REEVE was on hand to collect and run in
from 15 m to score, duly converted by RHYS JAMES to give Wirral a deserved 12-5 lead.
They still needed 2 more tries to gain the 5 points they needed, however Rochdale made
their first venture into the Wirral half and keen passing saw the Rochdale winger having a
clear run to the line and score under the posts, duly equalised to level the scores at 12-12.
Continued pressure from Wirral in the last 5 minutes did not result in any more scoring.
This result did not improve Wirral’s position in the league as Manchester lost heavily at
Blackburn, whilst Bowdon won at Leek. Thus Wirral will have to play Manchester away, a
win will keep them in the league a loss will result in Wirral playing the play off winners of
the North West League 2 play offs.
Continue to watch the Wirral Rugby web site for further details of future matches.
The second XV lost 38-27 away to Sale FC and fall to 6 th in the league, whilst the 3 rd XV won
50-12 against Waterloo and maintain 3 rd place in the league.
Richard McNeil