Wood laments Loo show of respect
BY GEOFF LIGHTFOOT
FIRWOOD Waterloo put in a spirited second-half comeback on their travels but it wasn’t enough as top of the table Carlisle held on for a 27-14 win.
Tries by Matt Shields, James Telford, Steve Benson and Grant Connan gave the hosts a 24-0 lead at half-time before the Merseysiders fought back.
Director of Rugby at Firwood Waterloo Stu Turner was disappointed with how his team had performed in the opening half.
He said: “We showed them far too much respect in the first half.
“They were much more physical than us in those opening exchanges and that’s not really acceptable.
“It’s fair play to them, they created a number of chances and took them, but I’m glad we managed to get our hands on the ball and play in the second-half.”
It was impressive stuff at times as Carlisle looked in control but the visitors fired back and came out punching in the second half, first lock Connor Scrivens muscled a gap in the defence to score in the right corner with Daragh O’Brien adding the extras
The fly-half then scored a try of his own immediately off the restart.
Waterloo broke at pace up the park, and with Carlisle seemingly half asleep in defence, O’Brien scored their second try and converted to narrow the gap to 12 points.
However, despite further pressure from the visitors, the only further points in the game came from Carlisle as Connan slotted a penalty to extend the home side’s advantage to 27-14.
Turner added: “The second half was much more what we are about.
“It’s disappointing we couldn’t get that extra score to ramp the pressure on them but we simply left ourselves far too much to do.”
The defeat leaves Firwood Waterloo ninth in the table and leaves them just two points behind Birkenhead Park, who they face this weekend when they travel to Upper Park.
“It’s simple, if we play as we did in the first half next week we’ll lose, but if we take what we did in the second half and apply it over 80 minutes, we’ll have a very good chance of winning.”