Surreal

Liverpool St. Helens were in town confidently expecting to extend their nine match winning sequence. They were nearly at full strength and contained both the league’s leading points and try scorers. The mercurial Greg Smith started the game with 221 points and winger Ian Stanley had fifteen tries to his credit. The experienced Phil Kearns led a sturdy looking pack, which had not been bettered in a long while.

On the other hand, the Wolves were missing their two first choice locks and were having to adjust to life without the talismanic Ryan Parkinson at No. 8. There was something of a makeshift look about a pack which saw the recall of that old war horse Danny Jones at No. 8, Chris Lee drafted into the open side flanker position, a new second row pairing of Harrison Lewis and Dan Wright and two props,Jack Walmsley and Tom Hall, both still under 21. On paper anyway, the pack just looked too inexperienced, callow and under powered to deal with their opponents.

Within a minute, Ian Stanley had added to his try tally by scoring in the corner and Greg Smith nonchalantly stepped up to knock the ball over the bar. The faithful feared the worst as five times more Liverpool St. Helens crossed for tries in the first half, shredding the gossamer Wilmslow defence, scoring at will it seemed with their backs and forwards superior in every aspect of the game. Tries were scored at regular intervals by Matty Cunliffe, Greg Smith, Mark McCulley, Phil Kearns and Paul Bamber and Greg Smith converted the lot.

To their credit, the Wolves refused to allow this onslaught to get their heads down and when they could get their hands on the ball, they showed that they could play a bit as well. A Josh Longmore penalty after three minutes got them on the scoreboard, a darting touch down from Christian Lillie on twenty minutes kept them in touch and a good try from Ben Day approaching half time meant that at the interval they were 42-15 adrift.

Who knows what was going through the minds of the players at this stage. May be the visitors thought the hard work was done and that another forty points would just come without undue effort. May be the Wolves just thought they had nothing to lose and that in already scoring two tries, their opponents weren’t super men after all.

Twelve minutes into the second half, Wolves No. 10 Josh Longmore placed an exquisite cross kick into the arms of Ben Day who still had a bit of running to do before crossing for the try. This was followed by the LSH pack exerting their no nonsense authority with a twenty yard drive from a lineout for their seventh try of the game but it didn’t have the effect of subduing these pesky Wolves, now buzzing around like demented wasps, who just wouldn’t be swotted away. Visibly they grew in stature as they took the game on.

Longmore was calm and faultless throughout, Elliot Brierley in the centre simply outstanding, a threat every time the ball came his way, full back Matty King and wingers Christian Lillie and Ben Day, at last back to something like his best, were all playing with a smile on their faces. Up front, the old master Danny Jones became increasingly prominent, it was Harrison Lewis’s best showing as he grabbed his opportunity to impose himself in the second row and Jamie Thomas, coming on as a substitute, threw himself at everything. It’s no exaggeration that everyone seemed to raise their game. A fourth bonus point try came from Chris Lee, supporting his backs like an authentic No. 7 and then two more followed from the mazy running of Matty King. The LSH side looked shell shocked, this kind of response hadn’t been in their script at all, as they lost their shape and composure and argued with referee Daniel Taylor, who sent two of them to the sin bin in the last minutes. Just one more conversion and the Wolves would have been within a single score of the most unlikely win and that would have made the last couple of minutes interesting.

And then time ran out. LSH had the win and the points they had come for and their challenge for league honours was maintained but there would have been something missing in their celebrations back on Merseyside after losing the second half 24 – 5. And, the Wolves, well, they must have soaked up enough belief and confidence from their second half performance to believe that anything is possible. Whatever they may lack, it isn’t spirit or a ‘joie de vivre’ in the way they play.