Warming up at winter as Southport on a Christmas run
AS we wind into the festive period, the team is snowballing with five league wins on the bounce.
Last Saturday Southport welcomed Bolton rugby Club to Waterloo road and both teams had a lot in common. They were both founded in 1872, both coming off the back of losses in last week’s cup matches and both were sitting mid table in the league.
It was an opportunity for Southport to continue on their winning ways and move above Bolton in the table. One major factor influencing the strong performances of the Southport first team has been the continuity of the playing group with the front row and the backs in particular seeing minimal personnel changes and gaining in confidence and belief between each other.
The away team kicked off proceedings but it was not long before the dynamic partnership of Alex Leadbetter and Charlie Attis got the home team moving forward with some crisp passing and great linkup play. Adam Wood and Jack Parker combined to put away the elusive Joe Parkinson who passed back inside to Alex Leadbetter who was supporting the play superbly, finishing the move off under the posts. With the reliable Charlie Attis converting the try to put the home team 7 points up.
Southport were quick to follow up with another seven pointer with the powerful running of Jack Parker bouncing off a number of tackles before touching down close to the posts making Charlie Attis’s conversion easy.
The match then became a tight tussle with neither team gaining an advantage as both teams made lots of unforced errors.
The referee was also quick to pull up any indiscretion which made the game very stop-start.
Bolton seemed to have the measure of the young Southport pack in the scrums and after Sam Cross was sent to the sin bin it was inevitable that the away team would finally break through and score a deserved try although their conversion was unsuccessful.
Southport went into halftime 14-5 ahead.
The pattern of the game continued into the second half with Bolton unable to break through despite enjoying significant territorial and possession advantage. Southport, however, looked classy when they managed to string some phases of play together and another quick tap penalty from Alex Leadbetter and pass to Charlie Attis resulted in a piece of magical play from Tom Peacock who in one motion picked the ball off his shoelaces rolled over and whilst getting up was tackled but before landing in touch managed to pass the ball around the tackler and inside to Jake Mann who finished off the play of the day.
The unconverted try left Southport 14 points ahead and needing one more try for the bonus point. Bolton then enjoyed an extended period of pressure but again the Southport defence was solid. A number of changes were made allowing “the finishers” onto the pitch with the evergreen Mike Dale replacing the excellent Colin Fearns and Callum Tootle making way for Dan Lovett.
Tom Rowe also came on for the injured Tom Peacock. These changes had an impact as Southport continued to defend strongly, finally working their way forward and following strong play from the forwards Dan Lovett managed to barge his way over the line for his first try for the first team.
Man of the match was Joe Parkinson but mentions must also be made of Dan Lovett’s first try and Mike Dale who thankfully stepped onto the replacements bench following a late withdrawal.
The second team travelled all the way up to Keswick but unfortunately lost 31-3 however Southport ladies enjoyed a hard fought win against a Broughton Park team 34-22.
Next week’s first team match is away to De La Salle which is always a tough game but the momentum is on Southport’s side so they should be quietly confident.