Wilmslow Wolves are back on track

RELIEF was felt all around the Memorial Ground as Wilmslow Wolves returned to winning ways on Saturday.

After three North One West defeats on the bounce, Rochdale were sent packing – though not as easily as the scoreline might suggest.

Coach Rick Jones had asked his players to concentrate on three key points – defence, discipline and patience – and he felt that his players had responded to a degree, still leaving room for improvement for difficult games ahead at Warrington on Saturday and home to Northwich the following week.

Jones singled out young second row Max Wortley for his 80 minutes of graft in the boiler room of the win against Rochdale,and not far behind was the other young lock Charlie Gardiner, having probably his most influential game yet in the shirt.

Full back Ben Day also produced 55 minutes of near immaculate play during which he contributed to all Wolves’ best moments, while Bob MacCallum was also praised by Jones for his tactical play and his captaincy.

October’s Saturdays have been mostly wet and Wilmslow are not highly regarded as a wet-weather side.

However, on Saturday they got their season back on track by scoring seven tries against lowly Rochdale, who had won only once this season.

Rochdale had most of the territory in the first half, helped by a stiff wet breeze behind them.

Wolves defended well and denied them any score but other than a ‘catch and drive’ try from Alex Taylor against the run of play they didn’t get out of their own half until the cusp of half time, when Bob MacCallum landed a penalty.

Rochdale then put the restart directly into touch, giving Wolves a scrum on halfway in the middle of the field with options on either side.

Alex Taylor picked up the ball at number eight, found scrum-half Sean Street and Day did what he does best, intruding the line down channel one, and made 20 yards to suck in the defence before offloading back to Street who galloped away for the try.

If there was one person in the Wolves side whom Rochdale didn’t want to give the ball to it was Day, which is just what Rochdale did shortly after the restart.

He fielded a bouncing ball with space and then set off down his favourite channel again, making another 20 yards or so.

Several others handled the ball as a tide of Wolves surged down the field to release left winger Will Maslen, who still had a bit to do as he darted inside and raced away for his first try in Wolves colours.

In the twinkling of an eye, it had gone from 5-0 to 22-0 and the complexion of the game had completely changed.

With the wind and rain in their favour, MacCallum was soon peppering the Rochdale 22 with accurate kicks to the corners, forcing them to defend deep in the parts of the field where they least wanted to be.

Wolves added four tries in the second half.

Chunky prop scored after turnover ball produced a period of forward pressure on the Rochdale line.

Day fielded another kick cleanly, weaved his way down channel one again and then timed his offload to James Coulthurst, who had replaced the injured Elliott Brierley in the centre, perfectly for try number five.

Having picked up a knock on his knee for the second week, Day then departed the field.

The other centre Ethan Harding was then first to another well-placed kick ahead from MacCallum, which caused havoc in the Rochdale defence.

The final score came from Maslen after a planned forward drive from the lineout went awry through a misdirected throw.

The pack, though, drove over the ball on the ground and it was recycled to the left winger, who then skinned two defenders on the outside.

MacCallum kicked six conversions and a penalty from eight goal attempts in difficult conditions.