North Two West
Saturday, January 17th, 2009
LYMM 10 WILMSLOW 7
A CONTROVERSIAL penalty try in the eighth minute of extra time cost Wilmslow precious league points at Lymm.
It was a frustrating defeat for the fourth-placed Wolves at the hands of a mid-table side they’d beaten well earlier this season.
And there is harder work to come, with Wilmslow entertaining second placed Rochdale at Pownall Park this weekend and travelling to third placed Rossendale the following Saturday. Both sides beat Wilmslow – Rochdale convincingly - earlier this season.
Coach Darren Lucas was philosophical about Saturday’s agonising injury-time defeat.
He said the way not to give away match-winning penalties near your own line in extra time is simply not to put yourselves in that position.
In a match frustrated by wet and windy conditions and Wilmslow struggling to adapt to Lymm’s narrow pitch, the visitors managed their only score mid way through the first half.
It started with a typical bullocking run from the base of the scrum by No.8 Ryan Parkinson and flanker Charlie Levings carried the ball on into the Lymm 22. The ball was quickly recycled and with nothing much on outside him, scrum-half Charlie Mulchrone ghosted through the Lymm defence to score and fly half Bob MacCallum converted
The half time score was 7-0 and few thought, given the prevailing wind, that it was enough. Ten minutes from time, Lymm converted a penalty, but the Wolves’ defence held on doggedly until 80 minutes were up and well into injury time.
Defending a scrum five yards out, the pack was pushed back for the first and only time and was adjudged to have gone down on the line. Referee Max Barnard had no doubt in awarding Lymm a decisive match winning penalty try and two minutes later he brought proceedings to a close.
Said Lucas: “There were two major issues last Saturday. One was the narrow pitch. After such a long break, we didn’t really adapt to the wet and windy conditions.
“If anything, we were guilty of trying to play too much rugby, which ultimately was the cause of our downfall.
“Instead of playing percentages and putting the ball in their half, we were trying to run it out against a dogged defence which used the narrow pitch very well.
“Secondly, the way to avoid giving away a contentious penalty in the last minutes is not to be defending your own line in the last minutes. We were the architects of our own downfall. We had possession, and instead of kicking, we tried to run it out of defence and the rest is history.
“The rhythm was there, and the alertness. Tactically, the rust showed and we have learned a difficult lesson.”
Wilmslow must face Rochdale without injury-plagued club skipper Steve Braddock this weekend. The centre broke a finger against Lymm.
The match will follow the club’s annual reunion lunch for former players who will pack the terrace and grandstand on Saturday afternoon.

David Pike writes:
The restart of the rugby season after the close down for Christmas, New Year and frozen pitches had been eagerly awaited.
There were real hopes amongst supporters and players alike that the Wolves would be able to continue their run of good form at the end of last year on this visit to mid table local rivals Lymm. As it happened, they got to within the eighth minute of added on time of grinding out a win.
But defending a scrum five yards out, the pack was pushed back for the first and only time and in desperation went down on the line. Referee Max Barnard had no doubt in awarding Lymm a decisive match winning penalty try and two minutes later he brought proceedings to a close.
It was a game that could have been won and one that had to be won if this promising Wolves side is to move beyond its present status.
The judgement, however, has to be that they are still work in progress.
They played with their usual spirit and determination and no one can say that they played badly. They just weren’t quite good enough and on the day lacked the tactical nous to get past a resilient Lymm side.
If Steve Braddock had elected to play against a stiff breeze in the first half, whilst both sides were still a bit rusty, then his fired up side might have made a bit more of the conditions in the second half when they started to go through the phases with some impressive picking and driving.
If Bob MacCallum had prodded a late penalty into touch on the Lymm line instead of being permitted an unlikely shot at goal from far out on the left, the outcome may have been different. And if coach Darren Lucas hadn’t taken off loose head prop forward, Andy Vassell, who had been as solid as a rock in the set piece all afternoon, who knows what the final denouement may have been.
In a tight game, these could all have been vital decisions.
In truth, it was the home side, well marshalled by their influential fly half Mike Swetman who created the better opportunities, although they too were clearly off the pace in a scrappy and anxious first half and in the second, despite several good looking line breaks by Swetman and strong support running from his backs, just didn’t have sufficient precision to break down the Wolves defence.
Their forwards were frequently wheeled in the scrum, losing possession at critical times, the lineout was a lottery for both sides and neither team really used the wind to full advantage when it was in their favour.
Against the elements, the Wolves pack at times, all eight of them, kept possession with some effective picking and driving but they were starting from deep and inevitably when the mistake or breakdown came they lost a lot of territory before starting again. Much of the game was conducted between the two twenty twos, which tells you all you need to know about the defences on both sides. Long before the end, supporters of both teams were wondering where the scores were going to come from.
Wilmslow did manage a try on twenty minutes, when a typical bullocking run from the base of the scrum by Ryan Parkinson was taken on to the Lymm twenty two by Charlie Levings.
The ball was quickly recycled and with nothing much on outside him, scrum half Charlie Mulchrone somehow ghosted through the Lymm defence to run in unmolested. It was a typical piece of Mulchrone opportunism - the type of play, which makes him such a threat to opposition defenders.
Bob MacCallum had a penalty shot at goal from forty metres on the right but missed narrowly and at half time it was 7-0 for the Wolves but nobody thought, given the prevailing wind, that it was enough.
Ten minutes from the end of normal time, Swetman found the mark with a penalty from virtually the identical position that MacCallum had missed from in the first half. Even then the Wolves still looked as though they were going to hold out but another penalty award to Lymm in the dying minutes enabled them to set up a lineout five metres out.
They caught and drove but were stopped. A second time they came from a lineout and were stopped again but this time referee Barnard gave them an attacking scrum and the rest is now history.

Elsewhere, coach Darren Lucas will have been delighted that three of his long term casualties, Chris Lee, Brian Gibbins and Alex McLennan all made their come backs on the third team. It says a lot for the spirit in the camp that players such as these are willing and prepared to work their way back to full fitness playing in the club’s lower sides.

Saturday, September 27th, 2008
North Two West
WILMSLOW 33 LYMM 0

WILMSLOW thumped Lymm 33-0 in one of the most satisfying victories at Pownall Park in years.
It was a win engineered at half back, forged up front and executed out wide in an exciting display of all-round rugby.
Lymm will say they didn’t play well in the late Summer sunshine. Wilmslow did not allow them to play well.

The visiting pack was pushing hard in the scrum right up to the final whistle. But the Wolves gave as good as they got up front despite some Neanderthal intimidation and laid the foundation for a superb victory.
The intelligent kicking of fly-half Bob MacCallum , whose booming boot pinned Lymm in their own territory for much of the game, was matched by the box kicking of his half-back partner Charlie Mulchrone at scrum half.

The back row of Danny Jones, Rich Williams and Jonny Lee spiked every Lymm attack and lock forwards Al McLennan and Mike Clifford were supreme at the line-out, fed with pinpoint accuracy by the diligent young hooker Johnny Barltrop.

But while Wilmslow deserved every second of their celebrations, which lasted well into the night, they know they face a tougher test at unbeaten Rochdale - second only on points difference behind Altrincham Kersal - on Saturday. Wilmslow’s win hauled them up four places from ninth to fifth last week, while Rochdale won 34-27 at Sandbach.

Coach Darren Lucas praised his team’s “complete” performance. Following the previous week’s frustrating defeat at Northwich he said: “Sometimes you learn more in defeat than victory. What last week highlighted was the base for this win. Aspects and problems were addressed, as well as sturcture and function.
“They worked really hard in training and it all culminated in this complete performance. Every unit performed its role; the forwards did their job and provided the platform, the backs used the ball well and straight running set up good openings.”

Lucas also observed that against Northwich, with one man in the sin-bin, they leaked 14 points in the last 10 minutes. Against Lymm, with Jonny Lee off with an injured shoulder for the last 10, and all substitutes used, Wilmslow put six points on the board: “That shows how much better organised we were.”

It was Bob MacCallum’s golden boot that set the Lexus Stockport-sponsored Wolves on the road to victory in the sixth minute. A towering kick deep into their 22 was followed by an audacious steal of the visitors’ lineout ball. It was whipped along the line quickly and full back Ben Day joined on the outside to score out wide. MacCallum missed the conversion, but added a penalty nine minutes later to give his side an 8-0 lead.

Lymm looked like scoring from the restart, but sacrificed a two-on-one advantage on the Wolves’ try-line when Ben Day tackled the man in possession, who had got his pass away, only for the recipient to drop the ball. Wilmslow made hard work of the resulting scrum, losing the put-in but surviving the onslaught and kicking clear.

On 26 minutes, McLennan soared at a lineout in the Lymm 22. No.8 Jones burst through the front of the line and desperate Lymm tackles to feed flanker Williams who scored and MacCallum converted. 15-0.

Lymm hooker Nick Girdlestone earned himself a talking to for scrapping before the break, then stamped on a Wilmslow body in a ruck to follow it up with a yellow card. The Wolves capitalised from the resulting kick into Lymm’s 22. Jones probed the front of the line again, this time crashing through three tackles to score in the corner. MacCallum’s majestic conversion gave Wilmslow a thoroughly deserved 22-0 lead.

It was that man Jones again – just five minutes into the second period - chasing down a Mulchrone box kick - who pinned Lymm in their own 22 by forcing a scrappy clearance kick. The Wolves won the lineout and pressed relentlessly – white line fever gripping some of the younger players momentarily. But when the ball was finally - and sensibly - passed out wide, winger Rich Wood scored in the corner.
MacCallum added two penalties to keep the scoreboard ticking over, but it was all 18 players – substitutes included – who were responsible for keeping a clean sheet.

The sight of prop Andy Vassell charging through a ruck to snaffle Lymm ball and break away was a joy to behold. Last ditch, try-saving tackling and heart-in-the-mouth, on-your-own-line pressure is now a staple diet at Wilmslow. They will need to dig even deeper next week when they visit Rochdale, but what a way to go!