Last updated at 13:02, Monday, 05 March 2012

Wigton 52 Wirral 13: Youth and experience were in perfect harmony as Wigton romped to a fifth home victory in a row to raise the prospects of a ‘Great Escape’.

Wigton's Richard Moffatt

They beat Wirral 52-13 to edge nearer survival in North One West and set-up a crucial game next Saturday against Anselmians, who have just moved out of the bottom three for the first time this season.

If Wigton can secure another bonus point win they could move up to sixth from bottom and on current form the Greens will be hopeful of continuing their move to safety.

At Lowmoor Road on Saturday, against a Wirral team in free fall, the Greens ran in seven tries to secure the bonus point win which brings them a step closer to survival.

With two regular front row starters injured last time out at Liverpool St. Helens, Wigton turned to evergreen Sean Clorley to start at tight head. This meant a front row of David Waning aged 32, Stephen Carruthers (36) and Clorley (49).

As the rugby adage goes, youth and fitness are no match for age and experience and this was certainly in evidence as Clorley belied his age to put in a rock solid shift all around the park and was given a standing ovation when he was substituted with ten minutes to go.

At hooker Carruthers, who has been a regular all season had one of his best games, and loose-head Waning showed his experience to persuade the referee to ‘give him’ a ten-minute rest in the first half to keep him fresh to last the full 80 minutes.

Wigton lost scrum half Fergus Ledingham in the warm up as the “stinger” he has been suffering from recently was aggravated. But he was replaced in the number nine berth by local legend Tane Manihera playing his first game since re-signing with the club.

Manihera showed that class is permanent as he was a thorn in the visitor’s side all afternoon and showed why he has been a much sought after player in both rugby codes.

Wigton were clearly up for the challenge from the off and pressed early leading to a try after five minutes from returning fly half David Hanabury. He finished off some tremendous handling and support which was to characterise the Green’s performance all afternoon.

Gregg Smith, back in his usual full back spot, added the extras before Wirral came back strongly with, in particular, their driving play around the fringes which gave the Cumbrians problems all afternoon.

It has to be said the referee’s interpretation of the laws in the tackle did not help and the Green’s struggled to adapt to him. The referee’s communication with the players was good, but Wigton on occasions, just did not listen.

Wirral applied pressure and tested the Wigton defence which held firm and when the ball popped out of a ruck on the Wigton side, smart handling from the outstanding Robert Marrs put centre Richard Moffat away. From 40 metres he showed a clean pair of heels to the desperate Wirral cover. This gave the hosts a 12-0 lead and they looked like they were going to run away with it.

However Wirral had other ideas as they are also fighting for their survival, and they came straight back, again keeping the ball close to the tackle and using their compact forwards to drive forward. Their open-side, in particular, was to the fore all afternoon and made yards every time he carried. From a lineout the visitors drove well and eventually fed their right winger for an unconverted try into the stiff wind.

Early on in the season Wigton might have let their heads drop at this point, but they are now made of sterner stuff and went right back up the other end and forced Wirral to collapse a maul after a period of concerted pressure. The referee had no option but to award a penalty try for the Greens which Smith converted.

At the forefront of the driving play all afternoon were flankers James Brough and Andrew Brown who had a battle royal with his opponent.

It has been an unfortunate characteristic of their season that Wigton can dip in games and Saturday was no exception as they allowed the visitors to come back into the game after a well worked try from a turnover and after conceding a kickable penalty.

The score line was now 19-13 and Wirral were right back in it. This was not helped by the sin-binning of Waning for handling in the ruck, possibly caused by frustration of the visitors sealing off and preventing the Greens legitimately challenging for the ball.

It wasn’t until the 61st minute that the home team began to pull away. After an excellent break by man of the match Jordan Wood, the ball was fed to Chris Pattinson, who was superb throughout , and he crossed for a converted try.

This opened the flood gates and killed off the last vestiges of the Wirral fight. Straight from the kick-off, after the ball had gone through several pairs of hands, Manihera and Pattinson combined to put Hanabury away for his second converted try of the afternoon.

Then followed the best try of the afternoon. From a scrum in their own 22 number eight Stuart Creighton picked-up and showed excellent acceleration to link with Tom Gardner whose pace and power troubled the opposition all afternoon.

The ball was then moved right across the pitch to find Wood , who showed tremendous pace and a superb swerve to take him over the line from 50 metres out. Further tries were added from Moffat, again after some crisp handling from Hanabury.

The final try was, fittingly scored by returning captain Matthew Atkinson. Playing second row he showed blistering, winger-like pace to score in the right hand corner.

Just as Wirral were on their last legs, the home side showed no mercy by bringing on three pairs of fresh legs in the shape of Jay Henderson, who was very unlucky not to start; Dan Reed and even Fergus Ledingham wanted in on the action. Although carrying an injury he chose to come on to play his part.

First published at 11:26, Monday, 05 March 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk