Saints’ dozen show true grit

DESPITE arriving at the home of Leigh East with only 12 fit players, Oldham St Anne’s under-15s managed to squeeze an 18-16 victory.

Saints took the game to their opponents and scored through Jarred Ward and Nick Ryan to open up an 8-0 lead.

Easts hit back just before half-time to leave the visitors ahead by two as the teams switched ends.

After Nathan Hughes converted a penalty, the home team recovered to run in two tries, one of which was converted.

It left St Anne’s trailing 16-10 entering the final five minutes, but they upped their game and equalised after Hughes converted an Ollie Kerr try.

And Ward kicked two drop-goals in the last two minutes to secure victory for Saints.

A strong and well-drilled Rylands under-10s side did for St Anne’s, who went down 24-4 in Warrington.

The first half was a close-fought affair and after the home side went ahead with a converted try, Saints hit back with an unconverted effort from Anthony Wooley, who produced a powerful run to the line.

From that point on it was a defensive stalemate right up until the Sharks claimed a second score on the stroke of half-time, the conversion making it 12-4.

Saints defended well after the break in the face of wave after wave of attacks, restricting their opponents to only two further converted scores.

Individual awards for the visitors went to Alex France (champagne moment), Nathan Done (best tackler) and Thomas Armstrong (boy of the match).




Eight is great for Rangers

A WELL disciplined 24-0 triumph at Rylands saw Saddleworth Rangers under-13s extend their winning start to the season to eight matches.

Rangers took the lead early in the first half when Cameron Matthews scooted over, adding the conversion himself, before Dominic Elkin doubled the advantage with a burst that saw him race almost the full length of the pitch to touch down under the Rylands posts.

The third score for Saddleworth came immediately after the restart, Joseph Harrison-Brown collecting straight from the kick-off before outpacing everyone to score.

The same man was then at it again with another long-range effort.

Jack Sykes was voted man-of-the-match, with Cameron Matthews picking up the coaches award and Ryan Shaw collecting the top tackler trophy.