Great Team Effort

Crucial and contentious refereeing decisions had gone against the Wolves on their recent travels and it wouldn’t have been surprising if their confidence was low. These things, however, have a habit of levelling out over a season and on this occasion, the Wolves were arguably the beneficiaries.

By late in the second half, they had pulled themselves back to within just one point of the visitors and were on the attack once again in their twenty two, when Bob MacCallum spilled a fast short pass from scrum half Ed Armitage but instead of a defensive scrum to Widnes, the Wolves were awarded a penalty for an offside transgression by one of the Widnes centres. How the referee had managed to see the infringement behind him and whether that player was having any effect on the game at that precise moment was all questionable. MacCallum, however, wasn’t concerned by any of that and took the chance to edge the Wolves in front. A few short minutes later, a glorious handling move, started in their own half of the field, shredded the Widnes defence. Finger tip passing and joyful support running off the ball, all done at pace, released Wolves left winger Tom Raynor, who handled twice in the move, to seal the game with the kind of try that coaches, players and spectators all dream about. It was magnificent stuff to finish what had been a thoroughly entertaining rugby match.

Earlier on though it had been very different, as Widnes showed exactly why they had been second in the table. In the space of ten minutes they crossed the line three times to race into a 22-6 lead. The first of these came when their No. 13, Chris Schofield, broke the defence moving right in the Wolves twenty two before simply slipping the pass back inside to his full back Andy Riley for a well constructed score, which Kevin Leadbetter converted. Minutes later, the Wolves forwards were turned over on the floor and quick ball was passed to Leadbetter on the left who ran unopposed for the second try. At this stage, Widnes were showing considerable skill on the ball as they seemed to find space and time to do whatever they wanted. A third try wasn’t long coming as the Wolves obligingly dropped the ball in midfield, got turned over again for Schofield to make another telling break followed by confident handling, which ended with acres of space for prop Paul Borg to cross for the score.

In reply the Wolves had been finding it hard to make any progress against a defence, which at that stage was coming up quickly in a line. Wilmslow players, particularly Andy Walker in the centre were frequently receiving man and ball at the same time and it was no surprise when the referee decided, particularly in the second half, that the Widnes defence was just coming up too quickly and started to penalise it for offside. Wilmslow coach Giles Heagerty also adjusted his line up, partly to bottle up the dangerous Schofield and partly to sharpen the attack. Ricky Chadwick moved into the centre and Matthew King came into the No. 14 position. The whole tone of the game started to change.

Just before half time, Wolves skipper, Jack Walmsley, was up to pilfer an untidy ball at the Widnes lineout, his forwards drove and when the ball was released along the line, full back Ben Day cut inside, brushed off a tackle and slipped the ball to scrum half Armitage, who gleefully held off the defenders to scamper in for the Wolves first try. Moments later, the solid versatile Scotsman, Andy Walker at lost got a pass without a man on top of him and used the space to power through the middle. It was only desperate defence that stopped Matthew King from scoring.

Coach Giles Heagerty rang more changes at half time as the young tyros Sam Rodman and Harrison Lewis were introduced to the fray and the Wolves scented that there might yet be something for them in the game. They got into their opponents faces and upset their composure. Instead of booting the ball down field with a stiff following breeze, Widnes tried to pass their way out of defence. Inevitably a mistake was made when they knocked on at a drop out and from the scrum, a wide passing move put Tom Raynor in for his first try. Tails up, the Wolves continued to attack, Widnes were forced to infringe as they lost control and MacCallum twice exacted retribution. And so to the final denouement.

Heagerty was delighted with the second half showing against a good Widnes side. We were confrontational, he said, we ground it out and eventually gained the momentum with a real team effort.