RUGBY UNION (From Warrington Guardian)

RUGBY UNION

INTERCEPTIONS KILL OFF CREWE

Wirral - 36 Crewe & Nantwich - 3

THE scoreline in the end proved to be very harsh on a display by Crewe that obviously was not up to par but was far from inept.

The forwards in particular were at least the equal of Wirral's pack, winning all their own line-out ball and matching them in the rucks but on the day the half-back pairings proved to be decisive.

Crewe's scrum-half Tom Spowage, at 18 in his first season in the senior side, found it hard going in the cloying mud with his partner Carl Widdowson, far from his best.

In contrast Wirral's partnership consisted of two players returning to their club for the first time after tasting rugby at a much higher level.

However, Crewe's defeat stemmed from two killer interception tries in the first half when Wirral's No 15 ignored tackling his opposite number and made it his job to fasten on to any imperfect passes by the opposition.

Once was bad enough but twice was ridiculous and it was no consolation to learn afterwards that this was a regular ploy by the alert centre. Crewe were certainly hard done by with the score 19-3 at half time having had most of the game territorially.

To add to their woes the biting cold wind increased greatly in strength and the home side with this at their backs and with their comfortable lead, had the confidence to run the ball from all sorts of positions.

Brave tackling by everyone kept the score down to reasonable proportions but could not stop Wirral from adding three further tries to their total. It was certainly not Crewe's day but they should not be too despondent with the two sides below them also losing.

The 2nd and 4th team games had to be cancelled due to waterlogged pitches but the 3rds defeated Wirral 3rds 10-0 with a brace of tries from Nigel Gardiner and Geoff Palin. The Vets at Macclesfield came away with a 5-5 draw with Pete O'Brian scoring Crewe's try.

Next week sees a respite from league duties but the task will certainly be no easier for the side which travels to Northwich to play in a friendly with the Mid-Cheshire club two leagues above in status.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.