Birkenhead Park RFC

Sat 24 Sep 2022

Birkenhead Park

22 - 33

(HT 0-0)

Anselmians

Birkenhead Park

Anselmians

A full clubhouse set for a good old fashioned derby game when Anselmians visited the Upper Park on Saturday and it didn’t disappoint. With both teams unbeaten something had to give. Anselmians started well and pushed into the Pak 22 with full back Whitehpuse showing good speed and Park were penalised on their 22 with Morley kicking the penalty, 0-3. Park came back quickly and from a scrum inside the Anselmians half the forwards forced a penalty which Hall gratefully converted, 3-3. Park had their opportunities and when the ball went wide a kick through by Laing saw the ball unfortunately run dead. Anselmians came back strongly and some good carries by centre Otto saw them into the park 22 and obtained the penalty at the breakdown, Morley slotting the kick, 3-6. From the error at the kick off and a break by Fly Half Morley took Anselmians to the Park 5m line but solid defence kept them out and park cleared their lines.

Anselmians kept up the attack and were showing more enterprise than park spending a lot of time in the park half. Eventually after a series of attacks Grabe found gap and dived over the line to score, 3-11. Another error at the restart allowed Anselmians easy metres to get out of their half but a turnover by Park got them into the opposition 22. After a sustained period of pressure from Park with a number of pick and drives from the forwards the ball went wide and with a sharp step inside Wellington crashed over, hall converting, 10-11. Anselmians came back onto the attack and when Park gave away the penalty in front of the posts Morley calmly slotted the gift, 10-14. An Anaslmians attack through the centre Otto and a sliding tackle by Roberts led to his 10 minutes in the sin bin, half time.

Despite being a man down Park continued to pressure Anselmians and got the penalty in front of the posts, electing not to kick though but run the ball Park were turned over and within a minute were defending in their 22. Anselmians moved the ball wide and when the ball was chipped in behind the park defence Laing was penalised for stepping across the chasing player resulting in a yellow card. The resulting penalty led to a 5m lineout and the Anselmians forwards took advantage to power off for a score, subsequently converted, 10-21. Anselmians took further advantage with the extra man when the ball went wide allowing the Anselmians backs to create space to score another try, 10-26. Another Anselmians attack led to the ball going wide and when Hellier was found to be in their attacking line catching the ball was found to be cynically offside and another yellow card. A penalty put Anselmians on the Park 5m line and from the lineout a catch and drive allowed prop Salisbury to score, 10-33.

Park did not give up and came storming back with a number of string forward carries in the opposition 22. When the ball came wide Roberts found a gap and managed to feed Wellington who crossed for his second try of the day, Hall converting, 17-33. With Park with a full complement on the field they began to exert more pressure on Anselmians and spent some time camped in their 22m area. They had now gained scrum dominance too and were picking up the penalties. It was from a 5m scrum that a quick top took the ball wide finding Tyrer who squeezed into the corner to grab the try, 22-33. This was the last play of the game.

A hard fought victory for Anselmians who deserved it as they were more disciplined than Park who played ¾ of the second half with a man short. A lot to work on this week but if Park players can keep a cool head on the field things will improve.