Rangers primed for Eccles battle

Adam Walker is taken down

AMATEUR RUGBY LEAGUE

SADDLEWORTH Rangers set themselves up perfectly for this weekend’s crunch battle with Eccles by ‘nilling’ basement boys Millom in Kingstone Press Conference League Division One.

After a tentative opening to the contest at Shaw Hall Bank Road — which the home team ultimately won 38-0 — Shane Tupaea’s side made their superiority count after the break, racing home to score three tries in the space of six minutes.

Ethan Langhorn got the first points on the board after 12 minutes by kicking a penalty and he performed a similar task when converting loose forward Anthony Morrison’s try.

Winger Jed Mawdsley gave a hint of what was to come with a Rangers score a minute before the break.

And after Morrison, Ryan Moore and man-of-the-match Ben Whitehead had all touched down, Langhorn adding a goal to each try, the game was wrapped up by the point Matt Fogarty went over on the hour.

Langhorn ended up with seven goals in total, including a late penalty, for a victory that lifts Rangers above Saturday’s rivals Eccles — and out of the relegation zone, with six games of the season remaining.

Waterhead couldn’t make it a clean sweep of victories for our local sides, though, falling to a 30-12 loss at Castleford Panthers that leaves the club second-bottom of Division Two — and deep in relegation trouble.

At one stage, Chris Hough’s side were well in the hunt. After going 12-0 down, they hit back with tries from Peter Davies and Jordan Pye, Jack Chadwick converting both efforts.

But the Panthers galloped away to win the contest comfortably, at the same time bypassing the Peach Road club in the league table.

Craig Savage, Matty Bacon (two), Daniel Moran and Chris Smith were try scorers for the home side, whose goals were kicked by Wayne Hardy (four) and James Clarkson.