Saddleworth put up a fight

HAPPIER DAY . . . Saddleworth School Year Sevens are pictured after their win against St Peter's and Paul

SADDLEWORTH School's Year Seven rugby team were defeated 44-10 by a very strong St Peter's (Wigan) outfit in the North-West Schools' Cup semi-final.

Missing several key players due to injury, illness and the start of the holiday period, an extremely tough task was made even more difficult against the pre-competition favourites.

Nevertheless, a resilient performance was rewarded with tries from Nolan Tupaea and Luke Beswick, with Finlay Rogers converting one of the tries.

Saddleworth had reached the last-four stage courtesy of a hard-fought 8-4 victory against St Peter's and Paul School from Widnes.

In that game, Tupaea and Jack Sinfield scored tries, while Hasan Ghanem was the star performer.

The team will now focus on the national Carnegie Schools' competition that is set to commence in January.