Wirral 43, Waterloo 10

THIS match was re-arranged from the abandoned game a fortnight ago due to an injury to a Waterloo player.

The result was important to both sides as Wirral chase a second place finish, and thus a play-off game, whilst Waterloo strive to move out of the relegation places.

In the first minute of the game, a kick downfield by Waterloo was fielded by Wirral winger Ali Baker.

He linked up with full back James Annetts who made a break and as the tacklers moved in, flicked a back pass to the following Ali Baker who cut through the defence from 40m to score under the posts. Annetts converted.

Further pressure from Wirral after six minutes enabled them to double their lead to 14-0 when Mark Williams cut through the defence to score near the posts, again converted.

Waterloo used the wind to their advantage, sustained possession and pressure enabled full back Tom Lavelle to score in the corner.

In the period leading up to half time, Waterloo dominated possession and each side scored one more try, Wirral through James Annetts, Waterloo by Captain Dan King to leave the score 19-10 at the break.

With the wind in Wirral's favour in the second half it was Wirral who applied the early pressure and the home team achieved their try bonus point with a piece of quick thinking rugby.

Waterloo kicked direct into touch from outside the 20m, James Annetts collected the ball, raced up the touch-line and took a quick throw to young hooker, Matthew Ringer; he made some metres before passing back to Annetts who went over unopposed, the conversion was missed.

The remainder of the game saw Waterloo using their forwards to make slow progress down the field but the Wirral defence remained solid.

Wirral, with their superior passing and speed in the backs, ran in three more tries through Mark Gidman (his first for six seasons for the first team) and two more from Ali Baker, his hat trick).

Wirral thoroughly deserved their victory despite having to make a number of changes but Waterloo had no answer to the speed of Ali Baker and James Annetts who between them scored 33 points.

This catch up game moves Wirral from sixtth to fourtth in the league and was the first of three consecutive home matches; next week against Ilkley in another must win game.