Painful

Despite some good periods in both halves for the Wolves, it was ultimately a poor showing from which it seemed that nothing had been learnt from the experience at Rochdale the week before.

Coach Brendan Thomas knew exactly what had been wrong at Rochdale and he had drawn up this week’s game plan to deal with the all so evident fault lines. His words though either fell on deaf ears or too many of the players do not yet possess the wherewithal or skills to put the plan into practice. At this level of the game, you just cannot get away with ill directed kicking out of defence which will just be hoovered up by any semi competent back three. Restarts too need to be either short enough to give your pack the chance of getting underneath a hanging ball or long enough to cut down the receiver’s options. Anything else and it’s the perfect gift for the receiving side to set up another attack. Consequently, the Wolves found themselves 13 – 25 adrift after fifty minutes and started to try and play frantic catch up rugby, during which they made matters worse by readily coughing up the ball when they had it in the tackle and in the pass.

Liverpool St. Helens have in recent seasons been close to winning promotion but their sources say that this season’s team doesn’t look just as strong as its immediate predecessors and they don’t think they’ll be contenders this season. Nevertheless a glance at their team sheet showed that they still had plenty of experienced players who have been round the block several times and know exactly what to do when the ball comes their way. The Cunliffes, Greg Smith, Ian Stanley, Matt Gaines, Phil Kearns, Dave Westhead and others will take full advantage of any loose play coming their way. As the Wilmslow team quickly squandered their possession in the last half hour so the LSH side just patiently played the ball through the phases in the Wilmslow half, eventually wearing down the home sides defences.

For the first twenty minutes, the Wolves had arguably just shaded events. There had been several promising breaks featuring Craig Cooper, Ben Day and Mike Black, only for the ball to be lost in over hasty risky passing. The visitors then got into their stride with some patient play, recycling the ball across the field several times before eventually an overlap was created on their left for Matty Cunliffe who sprinted away before slipping an inside scoring pass to fly half Greg Smith. Paul McLindon kicked a good conversion from far out on the left. From the restart, LSH quickly worked their way back into the Wolves twenty two and when a clearing kick failed to find touch on the LSH right, the arch poacher Ian Stanley was on hand to score their second. If there’s one player in this league that you don’t want to give a free ball to, it’s Ian Stanley.

Throughout, the Wolves lineout was the most effective part of their game and when they stole the ball against the throw for a third time, hope was briefly raised when Craig Cooper burst through the middle to release the supporting Richard Hughes, who scored close to the posts. Unfortunately, the Wolves were without a recognised kicker, it was one of those days, and the conversion went begging as did several other very kickable opportunities. If they’d all have been taken, then the scores could have been level shortly after half time and the whole dynamic of the game might have been very different.

As it was, McLindon wasn’t long landing a simple penalty to the LSH score on the half hour but the Wolves had further opportunities in a good passage of play. Winger Sam Cutts made a couple of good breaks, there was a touch of genuine class from Hughes, who then slipped on the turf at the critical moment and a couple of knock ons at the base of the scrum in good attacking positions. All they had to show for this was a penalty from Jack Harrison just before half time, when just a bit more composure on the ball might have produced so much more.

Another inaccurate clearing kick was then snaffled up by the LSH forwards before their back line released Matt Cunliffe for a try on the left.

The Wolves started the second half with fierce intent, going close a couple of times before Ben Day deservedly scored. The game was still winnable but the conversion was missed and within a minute or so, the ball was kicked to Matt Cunliffe, who showed his thanks by chipping the defence, picking up the loose ball as it squirted around before handing it on to McLindon for the defining score. Frankly the wheels now just fell off the Wilmslow wagon and LSH had half an hour to round off the game with two more converted tries from Matt Gaines and that man Stanley again. For the third week in succession, the Wolves had gone awol in the final thirty minutes and paid by losing three perfectly winnable games.

There’s plenty for the players and team management to work on as they prepare for a tricky visit next weekend to Kirkby Lonsdale. One thing’s sure, they won’t be admiring the scenery at Kirkby’s picturesque ground.