More changes to the starting 18 means that so far this season the 2’s have fielded 40 different players so far. This highlights the strength in depth at the clubs disposal.
Changes this week meant a starting berth for veteran Ali Baker on the wing, making his first appearance after a serious injury. Also on the bench and making their first appearances were Ian White, Danny Furlong and Col Hughes.
Wirral were attacking the clubhouse for the first half and it was a frustrating 40 minutes. This was for many reasons but best to leave it that we were 8 – nil down. There was also an injury to highly rated hooker Ringer meaning Danny Furlong came on after 30 minutes, meaning a re-shuffle in the pack.
At halftime, it was clear that the boys were feeling frustrated and so we were looking for a positive reaction.
We certainly got that and the next twenty minutes there was some great rugby on offer, expertly marshalled by Whitey at 9 and Josh at 10.
Wirral had a big advantage in the scrum and we were also looking dangerous out wide.
For me the turning point of the game came when Macc managed to turn over Wirral ball in the 22 and then ran out of their line. The Macc prop evaded a number of tackles and ran up to the halfway line, where he was tackled by Jake McKenna and in one motion got back to his feet to try to strip the ball from the Macc player, who was then penalised for holding on. It was almost Pearly-esque.
This was a great piece of technique and strength by a player who is now an established regular and improving every week. You could see his family and his girlfriend were very proud of this steal.
After 50 minutes Wirral got on the score sheet through Ali BAKER when he chased a kick through, then stripped the defender and then hacked through gathered and fell over the line. This brought back memories of when Ali was playing back row.
The conversion was missed but Wirral were back in the ascendancy.
Virtually straight from the kick off Wirral were back in attack and thus came the try of the game. From the Macc ten metre line on the right hand side Wirral made inroads working to the left wing. The ball was quick from the break downs and it eventually lead to Chris Tyson going over next to the posts.
This was a great team try and was executed superbly.
Conversion was kicked and 12-8 to Wirral.
Wirral were hungry for more points and again a short time later were awarded a penalty in the Macc 22 just left of the sticks. Up stepped Josh Connolly and showing maturity beyond his years slotted home the 3 points. 15-5 with twenty minutes to go.
The game then turned in Wirral’s favour when the Macclesfield 7 was red carded for a dangerous tackle on Timmy where he lifted him over the horizontal and then Timmy landed on his head/shoulder.
As you can imagine , the warrior that is Timmy got up without any issue and probably knocked a bit more sense into him.
Wirral made it double despair for Macclesfield with JC slotting over the penalty to make it 18 – 8 with 15 to go.
All one way traffic now and Wirral were working their way up the pitch. After a jolly good kick and chase by Sheldon Wirral were awarded a 5 metre scrum as the Macc player took the ball over the line. From the scrum Wirral drove forward and were certain to score a try, only a number of infringements to impeding them. The ref had seen enough and fairly awarded a penalty try which JC converted.
25-8 with 8 minutes to go.
From there in it went to uncontested scrums and this did assist the Macclesfield players who managed to play some good rugby, knowing they had to attack. Macclesfield grabbed a consolation try under the sticks although it did appear that the ball was knocked on.
25 -15 and the full time whistle was blown
A good performance by the boys and we are now having people in different areas working well with one another. The second row pairing of Timmy and Chris Tyson were excellent all game. The back row had a mixture of pace, power and penetration, mixed with guile and experience.
Man of the match in my opinion was extremely difficult to give but I have gone with Chris Tyson for a workman like performance and dominating the lineout.
Tackle of the match goes to Chris Speed, who not only had an impressive tackle count but he was putting all the weight of his backside into them. You could feel some of the tackles on the sideline.
Next week we take a short trip to Upper Park to take on Birkenhead Park hoping to continue our unbeaten start.