Caldy returned to form against Harrogate

Sep 23 2009 by Our Correspondent, Birkenhead News

FOLLOWING the disappointment of the previous weekend, Matt Holt and his Caldy side got back to winning ways with victory against a strong Harrogate, writes Megan Dickinson.

The game could not have started any better for Caldy when from the kick off, the ball was gathered by Jon Nugent, who then powered down the middle of the pitch.

The ball was recycled by the forwards and spread to the wing before being passed through the backs to Ben MacPherson who burst away from the Harrogate defenders to slide in wide out on the right.

Richard Vasey converted and within two minutes Caldy were leading 0-7.

Caldy’s game was dominated by penalties with Caldy conceding 22 penalties in all.

Jon Nugent felt the wrath of the referee on nine minutes when he was sin binned for such an infringement at the ruck area.

Harrogate were next on the score sheet when they were awarded a penalty for an infringement at the ruck which was kicked by Brimmacombe, the Harrogate fly half, to leave the score 3-7.

Stuart Turner scored Caldy’s second try when a driving maul which started on the 22 metre line rolled over the line, with Stuart the thankful recipient at the back of the maul.

The third try was undoubtedly the try of the day on 29 minutes.

A break from Woof saw him feed Broxson whose round the back pass to Ince was exceptional. Ince then raced into the corner for an excellent score. Vasey kicked the conversion to leave the score 3-19.

Woof was imperious in the Caldy back line and the return of Broxson brought some urgency to the performance which was perhaps missing the week before.

The second half was dominated by both defences.

In the early stages of the second half, it looked as though Caldy would get the valuable bonus point with their fourth try but excellent last ditch tackling and more penalties conceded meant that Caldy were unable to get over the white wash.

Harrogate moved Aspinall to fly half with twenty minutes to go which appeared to change the game as Harrogate put more and more pressure on the Caldy line but a great team performance in defence meant that all Harrogate attacks were eventually snuffed out.