Moving in the Right Direction

The Wolves can hold their heads high after this one. The home side were lying second in the table and are many peoples’ favourites to win it but they will have been mightily relieved to have come away from this encounter with four league points. The Wolves enjoyed their fair share of possession and territory, dominating large parts of the second half as they endeavoured to hunt down their quarry. Ultimately though, they were kept at bay by a resolute well organised home defence. The bigger and heavier LSH pack always had the edge in the set pieces, slowing down Wilmslow’s possession just enough to allow their back row to cover across to deny the Wolves’ backs that piece of space and time that they needed to create that one final score. In the end, they just couldn’t find the composure to turn several half chances into the one score they needed. It really was as close as that.

From the kick off, LSH were first to show, recycling possession several times and using their bigger forwards to make ground. The first two Wilmslow scrums looked ominous as they were wheeled and nearly heaved off the ball. After seven minutes LSH had the Wolves defending a catch and drive situation, which they did well.

In the next play, the Wolves earned a turnover deep in their own twenty two and Bob MacCallum’s clearing kick led to the LSH full back, John Pape, being caught in possession and conceding a penalty. MacCallum put the ball into touch five yards from the LSH line but in quick succession three catch and drive chances were lost when the ball refused to go to the intended catcher. Moments later Ricky Chadwick on the right wing was harshly deemed to be offside chasing a well place MacCallum kick into space. A lineout steal then saw the Wolves create a glimpse of an opportunity on their left but the pass to left winger Tom Raynor just didn’t go to hand. Full back Matthew King went close to breaking the defensive line; Raynor then just failed to gather another MacCallum cross kick. The tactic was causing LSH plenty of problems and they were fortunate when the Wolves chasers were penalised again for a technical offence. On the half hour though, an LSH passing move close to the Wolves line was broken up when centre Mike Black intercepted and his pass put Raynor away for the opening score which was thoroughly deserved.

The next fifteen minutes were difficult for the Wolves. First open side Hugo Corbett took a bang and had to go off concussed to take no further part in proceedings and then No. 8 James Keys was poleaxed to the ground. The Cornish exchange referee really should have stopped play for what looked as though it could be a serious injury but he allowed it to continue for the LSH forwards to drive en masse to the line where their wily No. 8, Phil Kearns, got the touchdown. Keys was then yellow carded for a ruck offence and Matt Cunliffe knocked over a penalty to put the home side a single point in front at the break. The Wolves were still missing their combative No. 8 at the start of the second half and Kearns knew exactly how to exploit the opportunity to make a telling break, which led to an attacking scrum from which scrum half Alex McClurg broke to go in under the posts. All three LSH scores had come during periods when the Wolves were down to fourteen players.

At 15 - 7 down away from home with thirty minutes to go against league title chasers, you would have thought the game was up for the Wolves. They won possession though from the restart and dominated the rest of the game, their lighter forwards taking the fight impressively to their opponents and scrum half Andy Walker bringing his backs into play whenever he could with his quick pass. They were always looking dangerous. It was up to LSH’s arch poacher, Ian Stanley, to break the siege when he intercepted on his own line and nearly ran the length of the field before being hauled down just short by King who had somehow managed to cover back. Their only other chance came from a charge down but the Wolves got back in the nick of time and from the drop out, Chris Lee jumped to cleanly catch the ball and release Mike Black. Sadly the final pass went awry. Two MacCallum penalties which brought them back to 15-13 with time still on the clock were poor reward for their efforts and a second Cunliffe penalty on the stroke of full time eased LSH home.

‘We’re definitely moving in the right direction,’ said coach Heagerty afterwards. ‘It’s frustrating that with so much possession, we just couldn’t make it count.’ And for that, you had to hand it to some of the street wise campaigners in the LSH pack, Phil Kearns and Paul Bamber, who throughout knew exactly how to slow down the game without incurring the referee’s displeasure.