The torrential rain that fell all Saturday was a feature of this game.
I was not able to keep notes or record changes to the team, which are now relevant under this year’s
rules so the writing is done from memory.
Wirral ‘s starting team was the same as the previous week, the subs were JOE FURY, GARETH
RICHARDS, CONNOR MOORE, JAKE WILKINSON and making his debut for the second time, JACOB
MITCHELL (returned from Caldy).
Wirral were playing down the slope but against the wind (which was across the field). In the opening
minutes had the ground advantage but difficult to make progress with a strong attacking line from
Ross even though they were in offside on many occasions, sometimes noticed by the officials.
After some 15 minutes, HARRY HAWLEY suffered an injury to his ankle and was replaced by JOE
FURY. With the ball Wirral attacked and a long run by WILL MORRIS was stopped just short of the
line.
Wirral were reluctant to kick although on occasions this was done and proved to be effective. The
neck tackle on one of our players ended with a Ross player being sin binned, a referee watching the
game felt it should have been a red card. With the extra man Wirral had the opportunity to press
Ross more and were pressing the line but could not force their way over, the ball was passed to the
left and down the line until BEN BROOKS put in a short cross kick which was won by RAFAEL Van
OSSELEAR won the race to touch down in the corner, the conversion was missed 0-5 (25 mins).
Shortly after this ZANE PRETORIUS was injured and thus JACOB MITCHELL came onto play.
Ross attacked making ground with well directed kicks into the Wirral 20 area. From such a kick then
resulted in a penalty to Ross who opened up play and a kick to the left corner enabled the Ross
winger to win the race to touch down in the corner, not converted This left the score at 5-5 at half-
time.
With Ross now playing down the slope kept pressure on Wirral who were finding it difficult to break
through the stiff defence. The Ross forwards were heavier than Wirral and were pushing the away
team back notwithstanding their pushing before the ball entered the scrum from one of these plays
they pushed forward and resulted in one of the forwards touching down, the conversion was not
made, 10-5. One assumed at this stage that Ross would use the technique again but the Wirral
defence held firm and when in possession made progress up field. Much as they pressed they could
not break through the Ross defence.
In the last 20 minutes, Wirral made a number of changes bringing on CONNOR MOORE for HARRY
CROPPER JOYCE, JAKE WILKINSON for BEN BROOKS and GARETH RICHARDS for RAFAEL Van
OSSELEAR. They continued to attack where possible and had ROSS pinned on their line but could not
put a move together to get over the line. Ross themselves could not seal the game much as they
tried and in order to deny Wirral a losing point took a penalty from 20m out, 5m wide of the posts
but the kick was well missed.
The final minutes of the game saw Wirral pressing the Ross line but could not execute the final pass
to get over the whitewash and with that the referee called time.
Should the match have been played in such rainfall making it difficult for players and spectators?
Wirral have now fallen to 4 th in the league but still have the best defensive record in the league. Next
week Wirral are at home to Vale of Lune with an early kick off at 2.30pm kick off.

The seconds lost 12-20 to Chester 2nds, whilst the 3rds defeated 2 nd place Firwood Waterloo 17-5
but still remain in 3 rd place.
Richard McNeil