Leek edged out at home by a spirited Wirral performance. In a game that could have gone either way, it wasn’t to be for the 1st XV as Wirral took the spoils in a tight and physical encounter.

Coach Booth named a strong side for Leeks second home match of the season. Bobby Cheadle made his first start of the season in the front row, alongside his brother and skipper Eddie Cheadle and Lee Williams. Tom Hayes returned to the second row with Joel Booth. The back row remained unchanged with Billy Kidd, George Hunt, and Joe Gorman. Joe Byrne and Rob McDermott made up the half backs with Josh Nadin and James Floyd pairing as the centres. Sam Brereton, Kin Critchlow and Jack Newton-Taylor made up the back three. Gregor Hayes was joined by the returning pair of Ollie Powell and Will Midwinter on the bench.

Leek kicked the game off in dry and still conditions which promoted expansive running rugby, and on 5 minutes, Jack Newton-Taylor did just, beating his man to break through before being tackled 5 metres shy of the try line and turned over. Just a few minutes later Wirral, using their pop off the deck tactic, had broke through and scored underneath the Leek posts. 0-7 to the visitors. On 10 minutes Newton-Taylor received a yellow card for a high tackle. Wirral couldn’t take advantage of the extra man though, and on 14 minutes Leek had a driving maul pulled down on the Wirral 5 metre line which resulted in the visitor’s hooker also being sent to the bin. Leek capitalised from this as young scrum half Joe Byrne dotted down in the right-hand corner. The conversion was missed, score 5-7 to Wirral. There were to be no more scores in the half despite Wirral having the better of the game territorially.

At half-time coaches Booth and Appleyard decided to bring Powell on for George Hunt in the back row and Will Midwinter for Josh Nadin. On 55 minutes Wirral managed to force a way over the line, on the left-hand side, after significant pressure for a large period the conversion was missed, and the visitors extended their lead to 5-12. Straight from the kick off, Newton-Taylor broke down the left wing, stepped the next man and offloaded to man of the match Byrne to score in the corner. Byrne cooly slotted the conversion to level the game at 12-12. Leek had finally sprung into action and were applying continuous pressure to Wirral, but just couldn’t find a breakthrough. On 65 minutes Wirral won a penalty in their own half and kicked for touch, Leek attempted to keep the ball infield from the kick, but a fortunate bounce fell for the chase of the Wirral winger who was through under the sticks to regain the lead at 12-19. On 73 minutes Joel Booth broke on the right-hand side with Gregor Hayes before being chased down by the covering defence. Leek moved the ball wide from right to left with Floyd being tackled on Wirral’s 22mtr. Byrne, seeing that the defence was scrambled offloaded to Brereton who raced into the corner to score. The conversion was missed, and the game was finely poised at 17-19 with 5 minutes to go. From the kick off Leek were applying great pressure with Gregor Hayes breaking and offloading to Billy Kidd just short of the Wirral posts, but a great covering tackle was enough force a knock on. On 78 minutes Joe Gorman saw yellow for a high tackle, Wirral opting to kick and take the score to 17-22. From the kick off Wirral regathered the ball, let the clock run down and kick the ball out for a hard-fought win.

Next weekend Leek welcome league leaders Blackburn to Altrad Park, kick off 3PM.