Victory despite drop in standard

BIRKENHEAD PARK 2ND XV...26 MACCLESFIELD 2ND XV .......... 42 PAUL JAKUBOWSKI

AFTER a comprehensive win against Anselmians last Saturday the second XV travelled to the Wirral to play Birkenhead Wanderers, the club’s second string side.

Wanderers were defeated in their last outing, losing 26-21 at Vale of Lune, the only side to have defeated Macclesfield this season.

Wanderers set themselves up in a similar way to Anselmians, only this was a far fitter pack than last week’s opposition. Macclesfield effectively repelled a number of driving mauls and rucks in the first 10 minutes.

When Macclesfield were in possession, they looked to move the ball wide as they had done last week. Sam Brown had one mazy run after coming into the line, before Alex Jakubowski struck first after clever work from Brown and Louis Gray, with Issac Reaney converting.

Reaney than kicked a penalty as Wanderers were caught offside. Wanderers kept their game plan simple and continued to challenge Macclesfield around the fringes, a lack of effective guarding, and tackling to high, allowing them to gain momentum and ground. Macclesfield were not as effective in attack as they had been the previous week, but were still able to score tries through Reaney, whilst Nathan Sach scored twice leaving the Wanderers defence grasping at air! In between these scores Wanderers had scored a converted try after a series of rucks on the Macclesfield line. Whilst not playing at their best Macclesfield had a half time score of 25-7 which would be something to build on.

Macclesfield needed to cut out their mistakes and defend more effectively in the second half; however errors continued, with penalties being conceded, missed tackles, and lost lineouts allowing Wanderers to build momentum and eventually scoring and converting a try. Macclesfield responded from the kick off and forced a knock-on in the Birkenhead 22, from the resulting scrum Jakubowski now at nine broke and escaped the attention of the

Wanderers defence to dart under the post with

Reaney chipping over the conversion. This should have been the opportunity for the Seconds to get a grip on the game, but again Wanderers kept to their game plan and Macclesfield failed to deal with it.

The game was turning into a war of attrition, in the forwards Max Dempsey, Harry Owns and Ben Hadfield tackled heroically, Chris Effingham made some excellent hits as did Ross Turner.

Eventually Macclesfield succumbed to the pressure and Wanderers were over again, converting to make it 21-34 to the visitors. Macclesfield hit back after turning over Wanderers on the halfway line Sam Brown had the ball in space and went on a mazy run to score and take

Macclesfield up to 39 points. The Seconds forwards were now tiring, and Wanderers again put pressure on Macclesfield forcing them into an exhausting defensive effort. Jim Curtis took a yellow card for the team as they went offside repeatedly on their try line, eventually

Wanderers crashed over in the corner.

From the kick off Macclesfield forced a penalty in front of the posts which Reaney converted to make it a final score of 26 -42 to Macclesfield.

The changing room was flat after the game the feeling was that as a group they had not performed to the standards set in recent matches and they are looking to put this right on Saturday when Tarleton visit Priory Park.