The Come Back Kids

The Lancastrians will have returned home afterwards relieved to have avoided a third successive loss but feeling also that maybe they should have held on to their 21-11 lead and taken all four league points at stake. A missed penalty chance from a not too difficult position in the last five minutes or so followed by a calamitous clearing kick going from just outside their twenty two going direct into touch let the Wolves off the hook and enabled them to set up the position from which James was to get the match saving try.

Wilmslow are making a habit of coming from behind in the final fifteen minutes. They just about got away with it this time but their luck will soon run out if they don’t raise their game for the first hour in games to come. Afterwards there was just a sense of disappointment at what for the most part was a lack lustre performance. It all started in the set piece which creaked throughout. Hardly a ball was cleanly won, leaving Simon Irving and latterly Mike Black with a lot of tidying up to do at the base of the scrum. This produces slow ball for scrum half Andy Walker and consequently everybody is trying to make something happen from off the back foot. The margins between getting it right or not quite right are very fine. Four kicks out on the full may not sound very much but it means that instead of a play in your opponents half of the field, you are once again back defending on your own twenty two. Coach Rick Jones was clearly displeased with his side’s tepid first half performance but more satisfied with their late second half revival. The question is that if they can raise the tempo to save a losing game, why can’t they play like that for the whole duration.

After missing his first effort at goal after seven minutes, Vale’s kicker Jack Turton was given a second chance a minute later from virtually the same position around thirty metres out from which he duly obliged to put Vale ahead. Vale were showing good ball retention skills whenever their dangerous backs had a chance and it wasn’t until the end of the first quarter that the Wolves were able to mount a concerted attack. Vale were fortunate not to lose a player to a Yellow Card, when they blatantly interfered with a ball coming back on the Wilmslow side and then as so often can happen a fifty/fifty ball under their posts went their way and Vale centre David Haigh was quick to exploit the gap. He then timed his pass perfectly to full back Nick Royle. If there’s one person you don’t want to receive the ball in a yard of open space, it’s Royle. It was no contest as he stepped on the gas for his first try. Haigh then found another gap in midfield and only a desperate covering tackle at the expense of another penalty kick for Turton prevented Vale from going more than 11-0 ahead.

The Wolves now desperately needed to show some signs of life and this came when centre Richard Hughes carved through the middle only for a Vale finger tip to prevent his scoring pass going to hand. We then had three scores in three minutes as first Bob MacCallum and Turton exchanged penalties and then the second Wolves centre Sam Cutts caught his opposite number wrong footed to run all the way from midfield for a try on the cusp of half time. A half time deficit of 8-14 looked far more manageable than 3-14 which it had just been. When MacCallum landed his second penalty soon after half time and Vale’s lock forward Fraser Spavin was yellow carded for a ‘professional foul’, it looked even more promising for the Wolves.

Vale, however, got themselves into the box seat again. They were winning plenty of possession and dominated territory. Wilmslow rang the changes, Jordan Ayrey off, Simeon Meek on, Alex Kaihau off, Simon Irving into the second row with Mike Clifford, Mike Black to No. 8, Matt Pearson off, Sam Cutts to the wing, Craig Cooper on in the centre but still they fretted as Vale won a lineout at the tail. Haigh, who was causing the Wolves defence regular problems, banged up the middle and quick ruck ball put Royle clear on the right for his second try. It looked game, set and match to Vale.

Belatedly, the Wolves started to play in Vale territory and with ten minutes left a concerted attack involving backs and forwards alike took them to the Vale line, where from a messy looking ruck prop Meek got the ball and managed to barge his way over. Vale still had a penalty chance to put the game out of reach but the kick went awry and when they offended at a scrum, the Wolves were able to get back up the field where Vale gifted them a lineout on the twenty two. There was now a sense of urgency about the Wolves play, as well there might have been with only three minutes still on the clock. After several phases, the ball made its way to James alone on the right wing. To howls of derision from the Vale touchline support that the pass was forward, James set off. Referee Brown, however, was not as well positioned as the Vale spectators to see whether it was or not but his opinion was the only one that mattered and moments later he awarded James the match saving try. There was still time for a final flurry from the Wolves as they attempted to steal the game in the final moments but time ran out and they were probably more satisfied than not to have secured a draw and two league points.

The Wolves now have run of home games until 9th. November. Next week they take on an in form Wirral side, who last week thrashed Wigton to remain second in the table. The Wolves will need to be at the top of their game from the outset if they’re to get anything from this one.