Late Revival Comes Up Just Short

Matches between Vale and Wilmslow have in recent seasons produced attractive watchable rugby. Both sides like to try and play a bit and this occasion was no exception. Four tries apiece were shared by the two sides and the sole difference on the scoreboard was Jack Turton’s touch line conversion for Vale of Nick Royle’s third try shortly after half time. In the wet blustery conditions, it was a remarkable kick, which deserved to win any match.

At that point Vale had scored twenty nine unanswered points and had gone fourteen ahead. Thirty minutes remained and with the teeth of the gale blowing in off the Lune estuary full square behind them, it looked as though it was game, set and match.

The Wolves were tottering on the edge of a severe thrashing, their prospects had all but evaporated but somehow, not without alarm, they managed to prevent Vale from adding to their score and as, at last, they adapted their game to the conditions, they rallied to score two late tries. In spells this season, the Wolves have shown that they are capable of the tight knit close forward game sometimes required but it’s just not in their DNA to naturally play that way. Unfortunately for them, on this day, it was just too little a little bit late as referee Hamilton brought the game to and end immediately after Lawrence James’ final conversion. Two bonus league points away from home wasn’t in the end a bad return for their efforts and may yet be significant as the Wolves battle to retain their league status. Vale though hadn’t won since November so the feeling remains that this was an opportunity lost.

The Wolves had started with wind advantage and looked as though they intended to sweep the home side off the pitch altogether. From the first scrum in midfield on the Vale ten yard line, they won clean ball, moved it right through several pair of hands, ran at the defence and when it was recycled from a ruck quick close passing put Sam Cutts in under the posts for the opening score, which Bob MacCallum converted. Minutes later as the Wolves came again, Vale infringed in the ruck and from the ten metre line MacCallum’s kick was straight and true. More was to come as MacCallum soon had the Vale defence back on their own line fielding a dangerous kick ahead. Caught in possession, they were forced to concede a scrum and a series of drives from the Wilmslow forwards ended with Josh Whitely eventually scoring. Ten minutes played, three scores and a 15-0 advantage was just the start they wanted.

Vale though now realised that the best way of stopping further mischief from the Wolves was to deny them possession of the ball, wherever play was on the field. They couldn’t have expected that they would be helped in their endeavour by the Wolves proclivity to cough up the ball on the ground and with wayward handling, when patience in possession was called for, and nor would they have expected to have eradicated the deficit by halftime. As the Vale forwards waxed with their close mauling and rucking game, so the threat from the Wolves waned. On the half hour, a turnover on halfway enabled Turton to put his backs into space and suddenly there was Nick Royle joining the line to burst through for his first try of the afternoon. Back they came again, mauling and rucking slowly up the field until a penalty put Turton into range to further cut the deficit. Turton now put in a well judged kick to his right, which ended up again in the hands of Royle, who ran away for his second score. Against the elements and all expectations, the Vale were ahead 17-15 at half time. The Wolves had squandered a winning position.

The second half commenced with Royle planting a speculative kick close to the Wolves’ line. The Wolves’ Mike Clifford made the catch at the ensuing lineout but the ball still came out on the Vale side and after crabbing across the field, right winger James Curran broke free for the touch down. Moments later from the restart, a hesitant tackle on Turton led to a three on one for the Vale and who else but Royle popped up on the wing for the scoring pass.

What would Vale do without Royle, one wonders. When they were under the cosh early on, he was up to every trick of gamesmanship to slow the game down and then as the tide turned he piled on the misery to grab his three tries. He has scored thirty five of Vale’s eighty tries this season and is the league’s leading try scorer by a country mile and more. Nobody has found a way to stop the Vale’s try scoring machine.

It was now generally expected that Vale would plough on to win in a canter but they changed the forward based tactics which had got them back into the game by using the wind to kick ahead. The Wolves back three were able to cope. Craig Cooper, on at No. 10 for the injured MacCallum injected some urgency into their play and eventually his pack adapted to the patient pick and drive game, which had served Vale so well in the first half. Whether or not Vale took their foot off the pedal is open for conjecture but there was no doubt that the Wolves played themselves back into it. With ten minutes left, substitute prop Adam Taher broke off the side of a maul for the Wolves third try. A couple of half chances then went begging but then in what transpired to be the last play of the game, the Wolves forced a scrum on the Vale line from which the skipper Mike Black, now playing at No. 8, broke away and through a tackle for the Wolves fourth try.

The result left Wilmslow in tenth position in the fourteen club league, two points ahead of Broughton Park, equal with Liverpool St. Helens and just two points behind Warrington and Wigton. With Carlisle, still some way behind but now showing signs of life with two successive wins, none of these six can feel sure of avoiding the third relegation spot. Interesting but uncomfortable!