Saturday, January 23rd, 2010
North 1 West
NORTHWICH 25 WILMSLOW 7
WILMSLOW won’t dwell on their shocking return to league rugby at Northwich.
But while they are prepared to treat their 25-7 defeat as a pre-2010 season fixture following a six-week lay-off, lessons must be learned.
The Wolves put Northwich to the sword at Pownall Park earlier this season and gave runaway league leaders Lymm  a shock, losing only narrowly at Beechwood before the big freeze set in. So they can do it.
Yes, Northwich had their classy and influential Romanian Bogdan Muntean back at fly half – but only for half the game.  He limped off after 42 minutes.
Worse still, Northwich skipper Rick Smith had got his marching orders on the half hour for punching when Wilmslow were only 3-0 down.
Coach Giles Heagerty shrewdly observed that what should have been a turning point for Wilmslow became a turning point for the opposition, with 14-man Northwich running in two tries before the break.
With only a consolation penalty try to their name at half time, the writing was on the wall for Wilmslow when a penalty in front of the posts rebounded off one of them. This wasn’t going to be their day.
Northwich successfully stifled any Wilmslow ambition for the rest of the game. Experienced scrum half Mike Gallimore probed and stretched a flailing and failing Wilmslow defence, eventually directing his depleted but inspired pack across the pitch three times before prop John Brotherton fell over the line in the closing seconds to wrap up their 25-7 win.
Coach Heagerty heaped praise on versatile prop and hooker Luke Donaldson, who had an outstanding match in adversity, as did Max Skofic in the centre. But there was not much else to shout about in a very quiet dressing room.
A minor consolation for Wilmslow is that they remain eighth in North 1 West and don’t drop a position, but they are now only a point ahead of ninth-placed New Brighton
Said Haegerty: “I told the lads not to dwell on it. We let ourselves down. There were a few people shying away from contact and that is not acceptable in a very, very physical game .
“We also made some poor decisions which was like watching us play at the start of the season. The boys accepted it.
“I have to hand it to Northwich. They threw everything, including the kitchen sink, at us for half an hour and got nothing.
“Then what should have been a turning point for us turned out to be a turning point for them. They scored two tries before half time, then killed the game in the second half. You can see why they are second in the table. They did what they did very well.
“But we aren’t going to spend much time on it. We will put right what went wrong, consider it a pre-season game that followed a six-week break and get on with the rest of the season, beginning with Broughton Park at home on Saturday.
“We have got to get back to playing the way we did before Christmas.”
The Vikings lost 6-8 to Macclesfield 3rd XV and the Miller League table-topping Hawks (currently starring on the RFU website) beat Acton Nomads 12-0, with tries for wingers Fraser Sinclair and Ben Goodman and a conversion for Stephen Beard. The 4th XV did well to get a game against Orrell 2nds with Broughton Park criying off mid-morning and losing  players to senior sides., but they went on to lose heavily.
Skipper Dave Upton reports his team will play Sale under lights at Wilmslow on Friday night, k.o. 7-30pm. Spectators welcome.