Kirkby’s game of two halves

The faithful travelled down the motorways to Altrincham for the first time in several years for Saturday’s game amid cloudy skies and the occasional shower for todays encounter. Both teams appear to have had a mixed start to the season, loitering at the bottom half of the league.
Altricham started with the ball gathered by Kirkby resulted in a penalty following the ruck. The line out was lost but good work by the forwards gained a further penalty but the home side pack with two 6 and a half foot members stole the ball in the line out and were on the attack. Both sides had their moments in the first 15 minutes when an interception by Bradshaw on his own 25 yard line saw him sprint to the opposing try line for the first try of the game. Kirkby lead 0-5. From restart the ball was knocked on giving the home side attacking advantage. It looked ominous as the home side pressed 10 yards out but their pass along the back line was intercepted this time by Bamforth who sprinted without opposition to put the ball down under the posts. The conversion by Lawson saw the score move to 0-12. The home side, through their stand off Yates started to dominate their game with pressure building, but the Kirkby defence held until the 25th minute with a score by the posts that gave the home side a try and bring the board to 7-12. Kirkby gathered from kick off and pressed forward before Altrincham cleared their line up field. A further attacking move gave the visitors advantage and drew a penalty which Lawson converted to increase the lead to 7-15 with 10 minutes to half time. Altrincham where getting on top of the game when their pack drove over to reduce the deficit to 3 points. In the dying minutes of the half the home supporters saw their number 4 intercept a pass and score under the posts for them to take the lead at half time 19-15.
The second half started with the home side attacking but stout defending saw a possible try held up. However the referee saw an infringement by Calum Little and withdrew a yellow card from his wallet and Kirkby were down to 14 men. The penalty 5 yards out saw a home side try after 10 minutes of the half. 24-15. Despite this, no further score was added as Kirkby defended constantly until a well worked move by Altrincham saw a great try as the ball was passed along the backs for the winger to touch down in the corner. 29-15. Kirkby lost their shape and seemed disheartened as the home side wing, Adebo, touched down twice in the last minutes of the half to increase their score to 41-15. With 3 minutes left of the game, Kirkby resilience stepped up as Barton kicked across field for Bamforth to chase who beat two defenders to catch the ball and make it a brace of tries. Final score 41-20.
A disappointing result for the lads against a team with older heads on their shoulders but plenty to build on for the future. A tough game at home next week against Burnage with the earlier kick off at 2.15.

DJH
Pictures courtesy of Robin Ree