No international clearance as first team are held back
INTERNATIONAL rugby doesn’t half mess with long suffering grass roots supporters. Just as the Southport First team was looking to build up a head of steam on the back of two hard fought victories against Hoylake and Collegiate it all came to a grinding halt with no rugby last weekend.
The same for the welcome visitors to Waterloo Road today Bowdon RUFC of course who are doing very nicely in second place, tucked in the slipstream of leaders Altrincham Kersal.
It will certainly be a huge test today for the home side but improved performances in recent games auger well.
Southport RFC is delighted to welcome Paul Halsall of Broadley Developments and all his colleagues and friends.
The Seconds travel to Littleborough secon today hoping to maintain pressure at the top of their table, with the Thirds at Liverpool St Helens III. Tomorrow the Ladies travel to Sefton with the Colts at home at 2pm to Collegiate Colts.
Last Sunday was of course Armistice Day and over the last month the poppy collection at SRFC raised £153.95.
With no senior games last weekend the attention was on the Colts.
Minis and Juniors joined the nation at 11am for an impeccable silence several teams having travelled some distance to fulfil Cup and friendly fixtures.
The Colts were up at picturesque Kirby Lonsdale.
Always a tough place to go, they came way defeated 36-17 but a great win for the U16s 22-31 at Garstang RUFC.
The U14s took the spoils 14-32 in a chaotic trip to Rossendale but the U13s lost at Littleborough 25-15.
This gives an opportunity yet again to acknowledge the invaluable commitment in time and expense for all the unsung coaches, officials and parents and family members to enable Southport RFC to put out teams week in week out.
The club is unsurpassed in this. Same again tomorrow – no lie ins! – with teams at Ormskirk, Heaton Moor, Littleborough and Sefton. BY STEPHEN HART
Southport U14s took the spoils in a chaotic trip to Rossendale.
They puled away in the second half to finish with a comfortable winning margin but this was only half the story.
This was the first time that this age group had travelled to Rossendale and the 60 minute journey up hill and down dale in the pouring rain to East Lancashire felt further than it really was. Eventually all the players and kit made it through but the visitors were late to climb the hill to the soggy pitch to join the home team for two minutes silence to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day after a brief warm up.
Unfortunately, Rossendale are carrying a few injuries at the moment so, when an expected player failed to show, the game kicked off with 14 players per side and five players on the Southport bench.
Despite the chaotic preliminaries and the cold and wet conditions, it was the Southport scrumhalf, George Oldfield who opened the scoring in the left corner before a good conversion attempt by Charlie Mallon bounced back off the post.
Whilst Southport had the majority of possession and territory in the opening phase of the match it was the tall right wing of the home team who was able to spot the space left by the missing 15th man and sprint down the wing to score under the posts allowing a simple conversation for Rossendale, twice!
Some positional and personnel changes were made and it was Jack Carney, on from the bench to plug the gaps out wide, who was able to score a second unconverted try for Southport to make it 14-10 at half time.
Unfortunately, Rossendale sustained injuries to three more players in the second half and the match was briefly reduced to 11 aside before returning back to 12 players each as the errant Rossendale player finally made it onto the pitch.
Things were tricky for both sides as they were forced to reorganise the scrum, line out and back line to cater for the different player numbers. Southport were able to ensure all players got some decent match time, although less than expected, due to the short sided teams.
However, it was Southport who appeared to adapt best and in the final third of the match were able to score further tries with a brace for Euan Thomas and one apiece for Charlie Mallon, converted by Edward Sinclair, and Freddie Boardman.
The match finished 32-14 which seemed a fair result on the balance of play and the number of spilt passes in slippery conditions for the visitors as the try line beckoned.
Both sets of coaches agreed that, now the duck has been broken, we should try to squeeze a return fixture in later in the season when the current Rossendale injury crisis has passed.