So near yet so far

Clitheroe travelled into Manchester to play Ashton on Mersey with a much changed squad from the previous week, but the squad was still strong enough to compete against a team in a similar league position.

Starting with a tailwind the Maroon & Gold looked to pin their opponents in their own half and dominate the opening exchanges. With a long starting kick Ashton on Mersey went deep into the Clitheroe half and attacked through the centres, with Sam Thornber making a massive vital mid-field tackle from which he suffered a shoulder injury which as play continues exposed a hole in the defence as he was treated at pitch side for Ashton to duck in for a gifted opening try, the conversion was missed by the hosts had the early advantage 5 – 0. Clitheroe took the re-start and pushed deep into Ashton on Mersey territory and after good pressure from the Clitheroe forwards Ashton conceded a penalty with Peel stepping up to take the points, 5 – 3. Another penalty followed shortly after and Clitheroe took a marginal lead through the boot of Peel at 5 – 6.

Clitheroe were recycling the ball nicely both in attack and defence against an aggressive Ashton pack, but deep in their own 22 lost one to the hosts and they duly scampered down the blind side for a neatly snatched try to regain the lead 10 – 6. From the restart Ashton on Mersey impeded and again cool Peel stepped up to slot the kick and drag Clitheroe back within a point at 10 – 9.

The game was turning slightly scrappy, with both sides struggling with the late autumn sun, some interesting interpretation of the ruck laws and some hasty passing leading to plenty of scrums. However, the Maroon & Gold were finding their way into the match as the new look backline started to gel. Quick ruck ball is like gold-dust in rugby and the Clitheroe pack were managing to get the ball recycled well. Scrum half Smudge Smith spun the ball out to Peel at 10 and inside centre Waddinton took a crash ball right up the middle of the park, again recycled quickly by the forwards with Andrew Thornber and Ralph Rigby making their presence felt. Smith spun it quickly again to Peel who stepped off his outside foot to swerve the defence and looked for all the world in for a score under the posts before a high tackle came in to stop him. He dusted himself down and slotted the resulting penalty to push Clitheroe back into a narrow lead at 10 – 12 as half time came.

Again the half started scrappily, with a virtual free for all at the ruck which Ashton on Mersey used to better advantage than Clitheroe. After some turnover ball Ashton attacked and after what looked like a clear knock on, so much so 29 of the 30 players stopped. Unfortunately for Clitheroe the 1 that did not was the Ashton on Mersey 2nd row who touched down under the posts to make the conversion easy to make the score 17 – 12 to the hosts. Never did the old phrase “play to the whistle” ring truer. They added a quick penalty to move on to 20 – 12 and Clitheroe were pressure to chase the game as it entered its final quarter. The pack pressured with Cowgill and the third Thornber, Michael – who had now entered the fray, causing the home team to work hard. Almost inevitably Clitheroe transgressed in their eagerness and Ashton on Mersey took the 3 points on offer – then a further penalty moved the score on to 26 – 12 to the host team.

Clitheroe were fully fired up to gain some points back and with 10 minutes to go there was still plenty of time to claw it back. With the new look back line starting to look ever dangerous and the pack began to dominate the maul situations with the wily Holmes now on for Cowgill. With the clock ticking down Clitheroe began to throw everything at the game, the pack was now gaining the upper hand and Peel was darting everywhere in attack, assisted by O’Connor and Gretton from the wings. Atkinson was marauding in the loose and it was firmly Clitheroe who were finishing the stronger, a late sin bin for one of the Ashton on Mersey forwards following a fracas as the rucks continued to be a law unto themselves enable Clitheroe to finish the stronger but with no more points as reward.

As the backline had so many changes it was a good performance, one which will give expectation to next weeks’ home fixture to Preston Grasshoppers 4ths, with a 3 pm kick-off. Whilst the 2nd XV travel to Garstang after Preston Grasshoppers 6th Team failed to show this week.