Win the kicking battle, win the game

Wirral 2xv were aiming to continue their unbeaten start to the season with a tricky home tie against Broughton Park. Last week we managed a convincing 71-5 victory away to Burnage with no less than 11 tries with a hat trick to the the Sween dog.

The weather was horrific with torrential rain throughout so it was nice to see supporters come out to support including Alan Davies, Jake McKenna’s mum, dad and girlfriend to be (his words).

On the front pitch Wirral could name another strong squad and it was good to see the ‘Return of the Mac’, once again, ‘Return of the Mac’ Richard McMillan playing his first twos game of the year and starting on the bench. Also playing was Ludsy after impressing in training and smashing all before him.

Playing towards the club the first twenty minutes was as drab as the weather. The Broughton Park 10 kicking at every opportunity to try and pen Wirral back. However, the ball was continually returned with interest by the ever impressive Josh Connolly and Ben Brooks. The only point of interest was a sublime 40 metres break by Jimmy Yarranton who was trying to inject a bit of pace into the game.

Onto the second quarter and Wirral were starting to dominate proceedings and the lineout started to function like a dream. With the arrows Jason Green was throwing he could certainly be a dark horse for the ‘LAKESIDE’ next year. The first being a ‘DOUBLE TOP’ straight to Mike Warren at the back which saw a driving maul that went around from our 22 to their 22 before being illegally hauled down. That was the start of things to come and from one of our lineouts we managed to get into their 22 then set up an Exeter for Mike Warren to score on the blind side. 5-0 and the conversion was missed.

Broughton Park then kicked a penalty to make it 5-3.
With ten minutes to go in the first half Wirral again got up the pitch and from a patient build up Mike Warren went over from 5 metres to bag a brace. The conversion, splitting the posts to make it 12-5.

The second half brought a few changes with Burkes/Phelan/McMillan coming on for Keane/McKenna and Yarranton but as we have done for a few games we lost a bit of intensity during the match.

However, the Wirral defence was magnificent and Broughton Park never really looked like penetrating. Tom Stevens with his text book tackling leading from the front at 12.
Unfortunately he had to come off with a bloodied gash to the top of his head caused accidentally by Jason. Tom checked into Arrow Park and required a few stitches.

Wirral needed some impetus to get back into the game and this came on around 60 minutes. With our backs to the wall and Park camped in our 22 Broughton Park went wide only for the runner to be smashed by Mike Warren , knocked backwards and in the same movement have the ball stripped from him. Without a doubt the hit of the match.

From that Wirral did not look back and from astute game management and equally impressive kicking penned Park into their 22 . From a series of thrusts from 5 metres out Wirral were illegally impeded and a penalty.

Wirral opted for the scrum and it was the right call. Phelo orchestrating a forward push for him to score a pushover try. A monumental effort from the Wirral pack. It was enough for Gaz Burkes to take himself off to self-congratulate on the side line.
The conversion was kicked and 19-3 to the super maroons.

The game was then played out and the final whistle was blown. Great team effort by all and the bar set to a high standard this year. All 18 players should be congratulated for playing the right rugby given the conditions and the commitment was there for all to see.

Man of the match was Mike Warren who put some shift in and was at the heart of everything . Mike was also given the award for biggest hit.

Farewell to Tom Sweeney who has played his game of the season before departing to Durham university and we wish him all the best.
Next week sees us travel to Crewe and Nantwich for another big game.