Rangers five in line for honours

LEFT to right, Rangers under-18s coach Phil Costin, Josh Brown, Ethan Langhorn, Steven Kiss and David Orwell. Not on photo: Matthew Fogerty.

A QUINTET of Saddleworth Rangers players are hoping for more international experience this month.

Ethan Langhorn, David Orwell and Matthew Fogerty are all battling for selection for the open-age England Lionhearts side which takes on Ireland in the four nations tournament Manchester in mid-July, while Josh Brown and Steven Kiss hope to get the nod for the under-18s team equivalent.

In the previous games, Langhorn scored a try for his country in a 42-4 loss in Wales, with Orwell also playing in that fixture. Brown and Kiss played in a 34-20 defeat for the younger age group against the same country.

All five players are member of Saddleworth’s under-18s side which last season competed in the Gillette National Youth League, finishing just outside the play-offs.

Elsewhere, Oldham St Anne’s hooker Danny Kay came off the bench for the touring National Conference Eagles team which drew 18-18 with France ‘A’, with Saddleworth’s Adam Walker doing likewise in the subsequent 16-8 defeat to Morocco which rounded off the excursion.

St Anne’s man David Cookson, playing in the second row, appeared in both matches for the BARLA Great Britain under-23s on their pioneering overseas tour.

Cookson came on as a try-scoring replacement in a 36-22 win over the Moscow Vereya Bears in Moscow in the opening game.

And he took his place in the second row in the 38-20 victory against the Ukraine national side in Kharkiv.