Sefton RUFC

Sat 30 Sep 2023

Wirral 3rd XV

27 - 14

Sefton 2nd XV

Wirral 3rd XV

Sefton 2nd XV

Poor sHamling, he is still here, a lot of people were convinced he would have thrown the captaincy white towel in by now, like many of his predecessors. If nothing, he is resilient, despite being told he’s probably the worst captain the two’s have ever had. Bare in mind, we had some bad ones, Jack Beckwith, Sean Muirhead, and that lousy ship deserter, ‘I’m going for milk, will be back soon’ Christian Caine, at the helm.

This week, the second team had a combined league and cup game against Wirral. Cup games are traditionally avoided by Sefton, due to meeting teams further into the competition that are generally overloaded with their first team players.

In Sefton‘s case their team this week were just overloaded with forwards, and a handful of recognised backs. However, with a continuous down pouring of rain, and sHamling at stand off, the chances of the ball going out wide were minimal.

- The Game -

Sefton's hope of a good start was dashed within the first five minutes when a spilt ball allowed Wirral to shift the ball out rapidly to their backs. Swift hands took the ball wide, and around Sefton‘s defence to go over for an unconverted try.

Sefton recovered their composure, and started to make small inroads into the opposition’s half. Line outs and scrums were fairly even, with no team really dominant. It was the ball in open play that clarified the team differences. Sefton's forwards had a slight edge on the oppositions, whilst Wirral's backs had a clear advantage over our backs.

Despite Sefton‘s forwards supremacy, one mistake and Wirral were able to break out on the counter attack. This happened several times, whilst Sefton were attacking close to the opposition line. Wirral would pounce on any loose ball, and pass out wide. This gave Wirral two well worked tries, all against the run of play.

Gradually Wirral’s forwards were starting to tire, allowing Sefton to become more dominant in the set pieces. Losing Rob Norwood to an injury was a big lose. After his big weight reduction over the Summer, he was becoming a useful unit. His nomination for ‘Man of Glass’ will be noted.

Long period of sustained pressure on the opposition’s line finally came to fruition. It was a lively Kyle Noon who eventually broke through, unstoppable from five metres out. Gorgeous converts the kick.

Second-half and Sefton continued from where they left off. Strong forward runs by luke Griffiths, Paddy Arnolds and Matt Faulkner probed for weaknesses, and any attempts by Wirral to break out was halted with some solid tackling. Another period on Wirral’s try line ensued, bar a break whilst we pick the ref out of the mud. The fella went down like he was shot from the grassy knoll. Once picked up, and dusted down, play resumed. From the scrum restart it was Kyle Noon again breaking the line of defence to go over for his second try. Gorgeous converts.

With Wirral not converting any of their tries, it meant Sefton were only one point behind. A slightly excited sHamling had to be reminded of the unwritten rule. It’s a Cup match, we play well, but not too well.

The dynamics changed again when Paddy Arnold had to go off with a shoulder injury, and Sefton had to go uncontested. A situation which favoured the opposition more than Sefton.

This was nearly forgotten though, when Mike Dempsey broke through the middle of Wirral’s defence, and was clean through. Only the winger chasing back and making a last ditch tackle, just short of their line, denied Dempsey from scoring.

As the game went on Sefton’s chances dwindled as Wirral’s energy levels returned, due to the absence of the scrums. Not even Mark Dobie’s blatant cheating at the lineout, could slow them down.

Two late tries by Wirral finally puts Sefton’s fight back, out of reach, and as the final whistle was blown, the rain stopped, the sun finally came out.

A fantastic game to be involved in, played hard, and competitively. This could have gone either way, but the uncontested scrums, and some superb cover tackling by Wirral swung the pendulum in the opposition’s favour.

As is becoming normal for our new captain, he was full of indecision, and couldn’t nominate one ‘player of the match’ so he chose two. The rampant, Kyle Noon, and the ferocious Mike Dempsey.

Though Mike Dempsey was rightly blamed for the loss, due to his lack of pace, as well as Paddy Arnold for abandoning his scrum, we might be thanking them both when Wirral face their next opposition in the Cup. How we will laugh.

- And finally -

I thought my captaincy duties were all behind me now, but I still had to listen to Goulding after the match, telling me how well he played. Surely, it’s sHamling’s job now he’s in charge, to support our care in the community project?

Yours, Lanky.