Doom and Gloom

Carlisle had shipped fifty points at Northwich the week before, had recorded only two wins this term and were below Wilmslow in the league. Tellingly, however, there had been signs of revival on the banks of the Eden as both those wins had been in the last three weeks and on this occasion the home side showed that in conditions that suit them on their own turf they can be a proposition for anyone.

There was a blustery wind in Carlisle, coming out of the West, bringing with it a series of wintery squalls which swirled around Carlisle’s Warwick Road ground. It made conditions for handling and passing difficult but surely not as difficult as the players from both sides made them look. In an error strewn scrappy encounter this led to rather more scrums than normal and that is where the Wolves’ difficulties began. Pushed around by the Carlisle eight in the set piece, they conceded three strikes against the head, and generally delivered slow untidy ball to scrum half Chris Lee. The back row were always on the back foot, unable to launch any attacks close to the scrum and the backs too often received slow ball with the opposition in their face. Only occasionally were runners, such as Ben Day, Matthew King and Tom Raynor able to break free and for long periods in both halves the Wolves were penned back in or around their own twenty two in desperate defence.

That they only conceded three tries and were mathematically in contention right up to the last minute was not only a testament to their tackling but also to the shortcomings of the Carlisle side, which with so much good possession and dominance of territory, only got themselves out of sight in the last minute of the game. They possess a rugged pack with a huge second row in Callum Rawlinson and in wet windy conditions when it’s unlikely there will be much width on the game they will thrive but on the evidence of this game, they don’t possess the firepower outside to threaten unduly. In fact, I can’t remember a single line break by their backs the whole game.

The game started in reasonable day light with the Wolves trying to move the ball in their backs to stretch the Carlisle defence. Ben Day, playing in the centre at this stage was prominent with his powerful running and nearly put Matthew King in for a try. But this didn’t last long. As conditions worsened and the gloom set in, the Carlisle pack took control. After ten minutes big Rawlinson peeled off the blind side of a maul on the twenty two and given the opportunity to go through his gears, there was no stopping him. Carlisle really should have added to their score in the next thirty minutes as they dominated territory, restricting the Wolves to occasional long range break outs, but a tenacious defence held out, helped by a penalty count at this stage heavily in their favour.

Within a minute of the restart the Wolves were penalised for a ruck offence in their own half. The home side’s kicker Glen Weightman forsook what looked an eminently kickable position for a scrum from which they duly moved the ball right for right wing Martin Brodie to cross in the corner and a 10-0 lead and that’s how it stayed until the final minute when a misdirected kick out of defence landed in midfield in the vicinity of Rawlinson, who brushed off everyone for his second and his team’s third score.

Whether the capricious wind was in the Wolves favour for the second half was debateable. Certainly, if either Walker or MacCallum tried to kick tactically for position, their antennae had to be at their keenest to work out where the wind was coming from or going to at any particular moment and territory was lost more than once when a kick went out on the full. Wolves coach, Giles Heagerty tried everything to get his team firing during the second period. Sean Street came on at scrum half, Bob MacCallum moved to number 10, Lee went into the centre and Day moved to full back. Dan Partington and Sam Rodman came on to reinforce the pack. The Wolves pilfered three lineouts in quick succession and MacCallum on the end of Street’s long accurate passing seemed to add a bit of zip to the back line but the Wolves couldn’t sustain any field position for long enough from which to attack and rarely looked like scoring. In their frustration to get the ball, the penalty count against them just mounted as they infringed on the floor again and again and the home side were rarely in any difficulty.

On the adjoining pitch though, the Vikings secured a good win against Carlisle’s pace setting second string with a try and two kicks from the evergreen Tim Medwell and a try from Angus Crawford. At least, there would have been some cheer on the bus back to Wilmslow.