St Anne’s take positives from defeat

RUGBY: OLDHAM St Anne’s suffered a 36-10 defeat at Blackbrook which at least featured some positives in a NCL Division Two game that was close until its final quarter.

At the start and end of the first half, Blackbrook scored two tries from Sean Richardson and Stephen Parkinson, but the remainder of the period belonged to Saints, who showed what they are capable of.

With a mixture of established and young players, the visitors dominated as half-back pairing Matt Whitehead and Connor Casey called all the shots.

Full-back Kiel Lancashire linked up well to put in Dave Harris for the first try and after a touchline

conversion, Lancashire jinked his way over to touch down.

It left St Anne’s 10-8 ahead, but the home team gradually got their act together and tries from Lee Brown, Greg Hale and Dan Fairhurst, plus two Parkinson goals, took the score to 24-10.

At this point, Saints continued to push forward and came close on a couple of occasions.

But in the dying stages Blackbrook sealed the points with scores from Fairhurst and Parkinson, plus two conversions from Jordan Welsby and Dan Parkes