South Lancs & Cheshire Division 1
Sale F.C. 19 Wirral 27
We lost top spot in the league to Wirral with this disappointing performance at Heywood Road.
Wirral opened the scoring on three minutes with a swift move down the backs as their left winger joined the line to carve through the Sale defence for a converted try. We narrowed the gap on 15 minutes when a neat chip ahead bounced favourably for Marc Kellett to collect and score from short range but we did not appear “switched on” in a half of poor handling and needless penalties.
Wirral produced some flowing rugby as they extended their lead with a second converted try midway through the half and we seemed to be unable to put pressure on the visitors at any stage. With five minutes left in the half, an appalling drop goal attempt by Wirral bounced off Tom Holloway’s shins and picked up by a Sale forward in an offside position, and the simple penalty in front of the posts was easily converted.
Almost from the restart Wirral caught us asleep as their blind side flanker raced in from 40 metres for a converted try and the visitors were almost out of sight leading 24-5 at the break.
The start of the 2nd half was a revelation as we dominated territory in the first 15 minutes and a neat half break from Mike Raikes put Jack Moorhouse in for a try to which Raikes added the extras, and from the kick off we executed an excellent flowing move of some 60 metres by forwards and backs which only broke down deep in the Wirral “22”. We were not yet finished as Wirral lost possession on midway and Andrew Baston picked up the loose ball to race in for a try again converted by Raikes, and we were very much back in the match at 19-24.
After looking like grabbing a possible victory from an almost impossible position, we unaccountably lapsed back into first half mode giving away a series of penalties as Wirral extended their lead to eight points. Even with the visitors having a player in the sin-bin, our handling and option taking became poor and we could not capitalise on the numerical advantage leaving Wirral as the new league leaders.
Neil Thallon