Wallasey win at home

With a mixture of excitement and apprehension in the air at fortress Cross Lane, Wallasey arrived in the changing room knowing that the fate of the game was in their hands. With a big crowd expected for the first home game of the season the squad knew they had to put on a show.
The heavens had opened in the morning but only for a couple of hours and this made the playing conditions of the pitch perfect. The warm up was electric with the buzz from the players. We were ready to go out and battle with Sefton and defend our fortress. With the warm up complete Wallasey were ready.
Rob Welsh and the Sefton Captain Aaron completed the toss to which Wallasey won, a pattern that followed throughout the day. Wallasey were to receive the ball and defend their clubhouse. The game kicked off with Wallasey retaining possession, the forwards set the intensity for the game knocking Sefton back and putting them on the back foot. This created space for the backs to run hard at Sefton. Wallasey dragged the play out left with the backs retaining the ball from the tackled man. With ball retention the main aim of the game Wallasey utilised the experience and dominating carries from Chris Cowan, Kenny Burton and Craig Moule.
After a few phases the ball got passed out to the backs with Rob Welsh taking the 10 spot to create space for Jack Liddell. Jack crashed through 3 Sefton players to cross the line and score Wallasey’s 1st try of the day. Adam Burkett adding the extras 7-0 and the perfect start. With Wallasey receiving the ball again the forwards shipped the ball out to Rob Welsh to create space again and pin Sefton back. With aggression from the forwards and quick feet from the backs this was seeming to be a lethal combination that Sefton couldn’t answer. In the loose play that Sefton did have Wallasey were relentless in defence making every tackle. With a quick turn over ball from the pack, Jack Liddell received the ball carving through the defence, kicking over the full back and scoring under the posts. Adam Burkett converted. 14-0.
With Wallasey in complete control they started to enjoy the game showing New Zealand how to do it. With a breakdown on the half way Wallasey won the ball passing back to Jack Liddell who drew his defender to pass onto Rob Welsh. With Jack and Rob now being the focus of Sefton’s defending Rob saw an opportunity to get the ball out wide, with a looping Cipriani-esc pass out wide to Adam Burkett he was in!!! Pinning his ears back and aiming for the line he got caught by a brilliant cover tackle from the Sefton full back. Down he went and looking up no other that Otis Donnelly was there for the pop… unfortunately Otis had already thought about scoring his first every try and unfortunately knocked the ball on and Sefton were off the Hook.
It wasn’t long before Wallasey were in attack again. With the backs running from deep, Rob Welsh found a gap to go through and shipped the ball out to Alex Lee Jenkinson for his first Wallasey try, running it in from 30 meters. Adam converted 21-0.
Wallasey managed further 2 tries before the half ended with a brace of tries from Mike Chippie Plaskett. His first giving him confidence to bounce 2 Sefton players and ground the ball out wide. Both conversions missed unfortunately with both kicks being out wide. 31-0 and half time called.
With Wallasey cruising and Sefton waking up, Sefton hit back working the ball up the pitch and sucking defenders in. With Wallasey on the back foot Wallasey were penalised for tackler not releasing. Sefton kicked for the corner for a line out and with a well worked line out call they scored out wide. Conversion missed 31-5. Wallasey set up from the kick off with one intension and one intension only. To return the favour and score in front of our packed club house. The chase from KO was excellent and Wallasey turned the ball over. With some wizard like side steps from Tim halls this enabled him to slip 3 tackles and score out wide in front of the cheering Wallasey faithful’s. 36-5. it seemed as if Sefton had woken up now and were playing some brilliant phases of rugby. Running hard lines and trying to suck the Wallasey defenders in. the momentum kept swinging back and forth between the two teams with both playing some brilliant rugby. After a Wallasey yellow card from Nigel Brierley, Sefton finally hit back out wide and after several phases of heroic tackling. 36-10 conversion missed
With Nigel Brierley back on the pitch Wallasey seemed to gain control and carried on how they left off in the first half with some brilliant phase play and then finally shipping out wide for Adam Burkett to run in his first try for Wallasey. 41-10. It seemed Sefton weren’t done and with them sticking to their game plan this caused Craig Shaw to slip up and cause a high tackle, another Wallasey yellow… with Wallasey down to 14 again Sefton were able to create the space out wide after punching some holes in the Wallasey defence to score another try. 41-15.
With Wallasey still down to 14 men Sefton piled on the pressure but with grit and determination Wallasey nullified their attack. With Craig back on the pitch this steadied the Wallasey ship and we stole the ball back through the young Gus Cadden who popped through to Tim Halls who burst through and scored under the Wallasey posts. 46-15.
With a few minutes to go and the Wallasey penalty count increasing, Sefton piled on more pressure. After Kenny Burton had held the ball up over the line a Sefton scrum was awarded. With Wallasey locking out Sefton shipped the ball out wide and scored in the corner. Final Score 46-20.
Highlights of the game was firstly to win with everything from training finally coming together.
Adam Burkett taking an arm to the face like a champ and scoring his first try.
Alex Jenkinson with his first try, try saving tackles and MOTM performance.
Jack Liddell, Chippy and Tim halls for their 2 tries each and JUG AVOIDANCES.
The link up play between the forwards and backs as we are looking more and more like a team.
Finally for everyone’s efforts throughout the full 80 and some nice returns to the game from Gus Cadden and Brendan Desmond.
We take this into next week’s cup and league double header. FTS!!!