Southport Storm’s next game takes place tomorrow against Chester Gladiators at 2pm at Tarleton rugby club. The Club will will be selling, chips and bacon buttys during the game.
Anyone interested in joining Southport Storm can come along to the training Sessions that take place on Mondays and Wednesday 7pm till 8.30pm at Tarleton Rugby Club. Join our facebook group by clicking here or follow us on twitter @southportstorm.
Southport Storm RLFC last result (14/02/2015)
Storm 14 – Runcorn 34
Southport Storm welcomed Runcorn to Carr Lane, Tarleton for their historic first game. The fixture was a pre season friendly game but was important for the team to see if they can transfer the good work done in pre season training to a real match situation.
The Storm kicked off and started with some great defensive work and kept Runcorn trapped in their own half in the opening minutes of the game. After five minutes, half backs Matty Leather and Will Scott Abbott linked up well and spread the ball to the left to centre Rick Hulse. Hulse beat four defenders and made a spectacular break down the left wing with support from winger Bill Mulholland. Hulse made forty metres and would have scored if it hadn’t been for one unfortunate footstep on the touchline.
After fifteen minutes Runcorn made a break against the run of play and despite the Storm defenders scrambling well, a Runcorn forward forced his way over to score the opening try. Storm responded well and made some very strong runs in midfield through their forward pack. After a scrum ten metres from the Storm line, Runcorn scored again after twenty five minutes despite valiant defensive efforts.
The Storm went straight back to the other end and came close to scoring after pressuring the Runcorn line but were not able to finish off their moves with a try despite impressing the large number of supporters cheering them on. Runcorn’s fullback then picked up a lose ball and ran almost the length of the pitch and looked certain to score until Fain Murphy made a heroic try saving tackle one metre from the try line to the delight of the spectators. However a Runcorn Prop scored after barging over straight from dummy half on the very next play. Runcorn came close to scoring again minutes later but Calvelly made a try saving tackle five metres from his own try line and also ripped and ball from the attacking player and turned defence into attack.
The Storm were eighteen nil down but not one player’s head went down and the team all showed a lot of character and grit and were determined to score. Storm’s forward pack earned their side good field position from strong drives from Captain Dave Oliver, Sam Collison, Paul Johnson, Ste McCann and Sean ‘Beanie’ Foggarty. Hooker Mike Sheard was dangerous in attack and he found space on the right and fed Jack Calvelly who made an impressive run beating several defenders. Then Murphy was floored by a massive shot to the head which he did well to get back up from. From the resulting penalty the Storm were piling pressure on the Runcorn line until Collison smashed his way through three defenders to score his team’s first try. Despite the strong wind and tight kicking angle, Oliver managed to slot the conversion. The half time score was 18-6.
The Storm made some changes for the second half bringing on Liam Armstrong, Jay McGregor, Paul Green and kiwi Rei Chambers who all made a big impact with some great runs and commitment in defence. The team made an impressive start to the second half and applied a lot of pressure to the opposition. McGregor took an accidental but sickening knock to the head when attacking the Runcorn line. He was clearly dazed but bravely played on. Moments later Scott-Abbott used his vision and saw an opportunity to the right. On the forth tackle he kicked a bomb to the corner and veteran McCann jumped highest to claim the high ball. He offloaded to Murphy who dived over and scored right in the corner. Unfortunately for McCann, as he offloaded the ball he was accidentally hit in the head by a defender’s knee. Like McGregor, McCann was brave and played on.
The Storm continued to look dangerous and were very much back in the game with the score at 18-10 but the clearly well drilled Runcorn went over for another try minutes later. Again the home side kept the faith and continued to work hard for each other. Leather fed Oliver who side stepped his defender and sold two dummies in a forty metre break. The ball then went to Calvelly who made another impressive run. The Runcorn defence were struggling to handle the home side at this point and signs of ill discipline started to show as one of their Props was sent to the sin bin for ten minutes.
Scott-Abbott and Leather started to spread the ball and made the extra man advantage count. They ‘pulled the strings’ excellently together as they created yet another attack. Twenty metres out from the Runcorn line Chambers’ showed his creative vision from the hooker position as he fed Oliver on the blind side who passed to McGregor who came close to scoring but was stopped only a few metres out. Chambers then took a drive himself and was stopped a metre out from the try line. The defence was ready to charge at McCann and Oliver who were both ready to receive the ball but Collison fooled everyone and went himself from dummy half and scored his second try right in the corner.
At this stage it looked like the game could go either way which was a testament to the spirit of the Storm players after Runcorn had enjoyed an eighteen nil lead in the first half. The away number eight had looked dangerous for the whole game and made another strong run and looked like he was going to score but speedy full back Adam Johnson made a superb covering tackle to stop the big forward from scoring.
After surviving that attack the away full back returned a long clearing kick in spectacular fashion and scored an impressive try. The home side then survived another attack as Scott Abbot and Sheard held an attacking forward up over the line preventing him from grounding the ball to score.
With four minutes remaining the score was 22-14 in Runcorn’s favour, but they scored a further two tries in the closing minutes to take the score to 34-14. After the game coaches Tom Bedson and Doug Parkin were quick to show their pride in the impressive performance from their players. The team had never played together before and some had never played at all so this was a very positive step in the right direction. The players fought hard for the entire eighty minutes and proved that there is definitely a place for Rugby League in the local area.
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