Mixed Fortunes For Saddleworth Rangers
Saddleworth Rangers U16s (picture: Alan Bolton)
There were mixed results for the different Saddleworth Rangers teams over the weekend. While the first team were beaten once again, there was another victory for the Under 16s, while the Under 9s put up a good performance in defeat.
The senior side were soundly beaten 48-10 away at West Hull. That leaves them third-bottom of the table with two wins and four defeats so far, and you can see the standings here.
Alan Bolton has sent in a report of the Under 16s’ victory over Latchford Albion Unicorns, and here it is:
“Saddleworth Rangers visited Latchford Albion after a hasty rearrangement due to Churchill Playing Fields being waterlogged. The last time the two teams met was last season’s North West Counties Semi Final when Latchford took the honours, so plenty to play for.The Rangers lads started the game well, playing through their sets and both sides defending well.
Jack Connor opened the scoring, taking a great short ball, spinning in the tackle and crashing over to score, Ben White converted. It took a
great long pass from Josh Bradbury to send Ben White in for his first try which he converted. 12-0. This was shortly followed by some great interchange between Scott Booth and Lewis Galbraith on the left wing which left the Latchford winger
helpless as Lewis touched down to make the score 16-0.
“The Rangers lads then had to sustain a serious amount of pressure as Latchford had three repeat sets, the defence held firm and a quick break saw almost a repeat of Lewis Galbraith’s previous try with some great passing with Scott Booth who drew the last man in to send Lewis under the sticks, Ben White converted to make the half time score 22-0.
“The 2nd half started in similar fashion with both teams playing through their sets, the wet conditions causing both teams problems with ball retention. Danny Richardson was first on the score sheet in the 2nd half with a scintillating break from the halfway line, leaving the Latchford defence in his wake, Ben White converted. The next try was scored by the impressive Ben White who spotted a gap in the Latchford
defence to score under the posts, which he converted to make the score 34-nil.
“Latchford scored the next try to make it 34-6, Lewis Galbraith then went over to complete his hat-trick. Credit to Latchford they never gave up and scored another converted try to make the final score 38-12 to Rangers. Top performance today from the lads, who continue to build on each game.”
Many thanks once again to Alan for that report.
Meanwhile, I’ve also been sent a report of the Under 9s game away to Folly Lane. Here’s Garry Eyres:
“It has seemed like ages since the lads had played a competitive game of rugby and they couldn’t wait to get started, especially after the disapointment of the cancelled game last week. The game got off to a very even start with both teams holding each other in the middle of the pitch, even with Folly Lane utilising their big forwards a combination of Bennet Tupaea, Keing Molloy, Elliot Noble, Sam Eyres and Fenton Rogers made sure they didn’t make too many yards.
“As the half wore on with the rain driving in, Rangers started to make some uncharacteristic handling errors giving Folly Lane valuable field position that they had not been able to gain through their forwards. As our line came under more and more pressure it was a terrific effort by the whole team to keep one of the best teams at our age group at bay, however Folly were rewarded soon after for their territorial advantage with their first try.
“Although the rest of the first half followed a similar pattern there were some glimpses of what we can do with Brendan Graham proving to be a handful for the Folly defence and Bennet hitting the ball like a train only to be stopped just inches short of the try line.
“Rangers came out for the second half looking more determined than they did in the first and once again battled it out in the middle of the pitch with Folly’s big forwards making them work very hard for any yards they gained, it was going forward that we didn’t seem to be able to make the yards on which to utilise Robbie Coates and Brendan’s pace around the outsides, I am not sure why this was as our forward play is usually very strong… I would never question the referee but i am sure that Folly Lane should have been a bit further back from the play of the ball!
“To try to get ourselves back into the game we started to offload the ball more in the tackle, and it was from one of these offloads that led to our only try from Robbie Coates who picked up the ball and ran the length of the pitch to touch down in the corner, closely pursued by two Folly defenders. Unfortunately the tactic for offloading the ball also went against us and gifted our opponenets some soft tries to make the scoreline not accurately reflect our defensive display.
“The game finished with a deserved win for Folly Lane who will take some beating this season and Rangers will have to put in some extra work on the training pitch with a difficult away game next week at Leigh East. There was an excellent debut this week for William Yarwood who after a shaky start grew in confidence and produced a good performance to take the most improved award, the top tackler award could have gone to five or six players this week but it was Elliot Noble who never stopped who took the award. The man of the match was Bennet Tupaea who led from the front at all times.”
Thanks again to Garry for that report.
If you want to send in a report of a local sporting event, or anything else, just click on Contact at the top of the page. I’ll be happy to publish it!
Author: Jude Gidney - Editor
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