Sefton RUFC

Sat 20 Nov 2021

Sefton 2nd XV

19 - 35

Liverpool St Helens 2nd XV

Sefton 2nd XV

Liverpool St Helens 2nd XV

The stop start season for the second team continued after another week off, with Liverpool St Helens visited Sefton. Another club struggling for numbers with their third team disbanded early in the season.

The second team was a mixture of old and new, with Steve Dwyer making a return to Sefton after a long absence, and making his début was Dylan Currie, just turned eighteen on the day, and offering a bagful of promise. Old heads such as ‘two step’ Pete Johnson, Darrell Smith, and Steve Teal provided experience, if not rugby longevity. With this amount of veteran players in the squad, it was possible that we would require oxygen canisters on the side line.

Both teams started well, but it was Sefton who made the most of some early pressure. A cheeky step through the ruck almost paid off for ‘two step’ Pete Johnson, who got over the try line, but was held up.

Scrums were dominated by Sefton, and this gave the backs plenty of opportunity to attack. Eventually, a great running line made by Danny Burgan allowed him to go through a gap and over the try line. Gorgeous converted.

LSH got few chances, but when they did, they were dangerous with the ball in hand. A sustained period of pressure found Sefton defending their try line, and twice the opposition were over the line only to be held up, with Darrell Smith putting himself between the ball and the ground to prevent a try. However, his over exertion was starting to show after twenty minutes of pushing in the scrum, and he was taking longer to get into position with each consecutive set piece. At this point, looking at his red, sweaty face we were considering moving the defibrillator closer to the pitch. Pete Johnson and Steve Teal, who were promised plenty of substitution rest would have to wait till Darrell got some much needed oxygen on the side line.

--- Kicking Update ---

After Jon Neville’s humiliating kicking efforts the week before, you would have thought we had eradicated it. However Dylan Currie was obviously unaware of this unspoken rule when he ran the ball out of his twenty-two, and then attempts to kick it clear. Though it wasn’t as bad as Jon’s attempt the previous week, it couldn’t be described as adequate. Skewing of the side of his boot, and veering high up to the right of the pitch into the waiting hands of the opposition.

High tackles were a constant threat to Sefton, with the ref not really picking up on it, or not deeming them high enough. Several players were on the end of these, including Sefton’s stand-off, Jack Cassidy, who had to go off for a bust nose. This rest obviously gave him a chance to analyse the game, which allowed him to pass on his observations during a water break. Unfortunately, I am yet to tune into Jacks broad Irish accent, so as he spoke I didn’t know whether he had a wealth of knowledge to divulge to me, or if he had just had a bad knock on the head, and was talking a load of nonsense.

With minutes to go, LSH had to resort to penalty kicks to get some points on the board, which left Sefton with one minute to survive until half time.

--- Kicking Update 2 ----

Our usual restart kicker, Gorgeous Dave was somehow cajoled into allowing Jack Cassidy to take it. To be fair Jack oozed confidence, convincing us that he could pull off a textbook restart kick, that would allow us to compete in the air. His confidence spiralled down, just like his kick, which barely made five metre. From now on Gorgeous would be taking the restarts.

As a result, a scrum was awarded on the halfway line which was hideously defended by Sefton, allowing LSH to slip through unchallenged for a converted try under the posts. This lack of concentration gave the opposition the lead going into the break.

As the second half began the ref informed us that LSH would have to go uncontested in the scrums, scuppering a key part of Sefton’s game. This was a huge school boy error from Sefton, who should‘ve known better than to break the opposition props too early. That wasn’t the worse of it, as Sean Muirhead joined us in the scrums, I would have to tolerate him getting unusually fired up for an uncontested scrum.

Now with a steady scrum, which wasn’t going backwards, the LSH’s scrum-half was able to supply quick ball to his back line, which perfectly suited their game. It wasn’t long before the ball was whipped out to their wing allowing them to go over for a try in the corner. Another break from the half way line increased their lead, to further frustrate Sefton.

The high tackles where still coming in high with sHamling on the end of a few. As we have found out over the years, sHamling’s face seem to get a lot of focus from the opposition, it’s as if they hate him too. You could say it’s very moorish, like Pringles, once you pop, you just can’t stop. After several hits, and a bust lip, he came off for a moment of solace.

Sefton finally found some form, and pinned LSH down in their own corner. After several crash balls it was JP Ellis who finally broke through to score a try.

With LSH now on the back foot, Sefton pushed for another score. Breaking runs by Danny Burgan and Dylan Currie got them into the oppositions half. The forwards piled through and drove up the pitch, and Matty Cunningham was there to put the ball over the try line. Converted by Gorgeous.

With an eight point difference, Sefton were now closing the gap. JP Ellis was enjoying winding one of LSH’s players up in the latter stages of the game, and this escalated when JP sold him an outrageous dummy, and stepped past him. He could be heard laughing as he ran down the pitch, which infuriated the LSH player even further.

Despite Sefton finishing strong in the closing minutes, LSH had the last word with a perfectly placed kick into Sefton’s half, which was collected by their chasing players. Dylan Currie’s did a superb covering cross field tackle, but LSH were able to recycle the ball, and score in the corner.

One of those enjoyable games despite the result, that was well contested. A great performance by Sefton, who were probably on course for a victory until the game went uncontested. Danny Burgan proved to be a great additional to Sefton’s back line, as did Dylan Currie. Some outstanding work from Steve Dwyer and Matty Cunningham kept the opposition nullified, but Man of the Match deservedly went to JP Ellis for his all round game.

We were pleased to see Darrell Smith still breathing at the end of the match, but I suspect he might think twice next time he agrees to play for the second team. In regard to kicking, I may have to get Jon to have a word with Dylan about the shame of kicking the ball on the second team.

Lanky