Rugby Union: Caldy are given a lesson by Tyndale

Sep 19 2007 by Colin Free, Liverpool Daily Post

CALDY came unstuck on Saturday as they faced the National Three leaders Tyndale at Paton Field.

The Northumberland men had just missed out on promotion last year and have strengthened to ensure that they can stand every chance of moving up by the end of this term.

Tyndale put on a display of consistent power, pace and aggression from every player which was allied with no little skill. This saw them take a 13–0 lead at the interval with a try from full-back Rob McDermott and two penalties and a conversion from former Waterloo man Phil Belgian.

Although Caldy started the second period in perfect style with a try from the young Academy flanker Matt Lamming, Tyndale were in irresistible mood and ran in three further tries with Belgian adding an additional penalty and two conversions the final score finished Caldy 5 Tyndale 35. Belgian was super smooth scoring 20 points on the day and taking his personal tally for the season to 38. Caldy competed well in most areas and it was pleasing to see debutants Ian Murray on the wing and Gavin Roberts at outside centre make some exiting breaks.

However, their can be few complaints about the manner of the result and if they are able to keep their key players fit, Tyndale will take some stopping over the course of the season.

This game was always going to be something of a leveller for the Wirral team – having produced wins over Hull Ionians and newly promoted Beverley they have now face a team of real quality. Caldy will now have a clearer idea of the requirements to compete week in week out against the top sides in this division.

Next week Caldy make the trip to the seaside as they visit Fylde. This will be their first encounter at The Woodlands in league rugby between these two teams. Fylde were put to the sword by Tyndale on the opening day and also went down 23-5 at Harrogate on Saturday.

In between time they recorded a solid home victory in the local derby game against Preston Grasshoppers.

Caldy will be watching out for pace man Nick Royle who has been away with the English Counties XV and missed the opening games. However, his replacement Oli Brennan had done a fair job bagging a hat-trick against Preston and despite their start to the season Fylde have pedigree and experience with five players in the Lancashire squad (Nick Royle, Daniel Waller, Tom Lavelle, Sam Beaumont, Roger Banks).

They will obviously provide stiff opposition to Caldy who will hope that the healing hands in the treatment room can weave their magic to ease some of their selection worries.

Elsewhere the Lions also suffered a reversal away at West Park 41-29. The Caldy third team opened their winning account against Chester at home by 27-12 with a hat-trick from Richard Bourne. With no games last weekend for the U17s and U19s academy the U14s, U15 and U16s took on Wirral.

All three team won with the U14s 31-0, U15s 27-10 and U16s 17-12. The U13s and U14s predators had a training game were the result was secondary to the training and thanks to Dave Sixsmith for refereeing.