Tupaea’s salute for resilient Rangers

BARGING THROUGH . . . Rangers’ Bowden Morgan takes on the Rose Bridge defence.

RUGBY: 

EVEN with two players sent off in the opening half-hour and two more sin-binned — twice leaving the side reduced to TEN men — Saddleworth Rangers won their home Kingstone Press National Conference League Division One clash with Ince Rose Bridge.

“It was like something out of Beirut in the first 20 minutes,” said Rangers coach Shane Tupaea after seeing his team win 33-14 to haul themselves out of the relegation zone.

“The referee was poor; at one stage I thought of pulling the team off and reporting it to the league.”

Dale Lowe was the first to see red for the Greenfield outfit and full-back Joe Boulter was dismissed for his language in contesting a controversial try.

Despite that - and spells in the sin-bin for Ashley Webb and Matt Fogarty and a broken forearm for Anthony Morrison - Rangers emerged victorious.

Saddleworth opened the scoring through Ethan Langhorn after 18 minutes and though Robbie Valentine

levelled on the half-hour, the home side held a lead at the interval thanks to a score from Gareth Morgan goaled by the impressive Josh Bradbury.

Three minutes into the second period, Ince drew level, but the Shaw Hall Bank Road side rallied again. Scott Owen’s try was extended by Bradbury, who also booted a field goal.

Rangers improved their lead when Matt Bottom crashed over and Bradbury converted, and there were more cheers for home fans due to tries from Fogarty and Bradbury.