Under 7’s The Young Guns
A fantastic turnout of 15 players, on a not too pleasant a day, allowed the Young guns to put out two sides against a seven man Littleborough squad. Both teams were a mixture of more experienced players with less experienced players.
Up until half time this was a very even contest with both sides scoring 4 tries. Kian Sutcliffe grabbed a first half hat-trick with Corey White scoring the other. In the second half The young guns proved too strong for the oppositions stretching away to score a further 5 tries, Littleborough only managing two second half tries. Man of the match Kian Sutcliffe ran in a further three tries, taking his individual haul to six, with George Sutcliffe and Gearge Wannan adding one apiece.
This was a very even contest throughout with some good open rugby and sound defensive tagging. The Young Guns matched Littleborough try for try Carrick Keighley-Payne scored a brace and the tie was level at 2-2. Corey White then scored for Littleborough with man of the match Alex Oldroyd levelling the scores at 3-3. Corey White (loaned to Littleborough) then nailed a final try for the Littleborough side sending his teammates to a creditable 4-3 defeat.
With the players cold and tiring rapidly this was a very even contest with both sides scoring alternately. Kian Sutcliffe scored a further two tries for the reds with Corey White adding the third. New boy Tom Stott opened the scoring for the blues with Jack Mallinson and Alex Oldroyd also grabbing one apiece.
Under 10/11’s
Rishworthians were well below par, despite fielding a strong team on paper. The result was their heaviest defeat of the season against a side that played well as a team, but were not by any stretch, the toughest opposition that Rishworthians have faced this season. The Maroon and White’s struggled to contain Littleborough’s one speed merchant who ran in a hat-trick of tries. Too often the Copley men made good ground only to knock the ball on or lose the ball in contact. At full-time the team were disappointed by their performance and keen to make amends against local rivals Huddersfield YMCA in their next match.Man of the match Harvey Keighley-Payne , Effort award: Tom Hammond
Old Rishworthian Under 8’s v Littleborough
Another good performance by the Under 8’s saw them sneek a 15 – 14 win away to Littleborough on Sunday.
In cold wet conditions, the team once again demonstrated their attacking skills with some fine individual runs to evade the defensive line. Will Symms covered plenty of ground to score a first half hat trick as did Callum Bell who crossed the line twice. Kallan Jamieson also scored 2 first half tries as he dodged his way through the despairing lunges of would-be defenders. As the half time whistle blew the game was all square at 7 tries a piece.
In the second half the Rishworthian defence struggled at times to stop some very straight and determined attacking runs by the Littleborough team, who rushed into an early second half lead. However, the speed and agility of the Rishworth team once again paid dividends with James McHugh scoring a send half hat trick, and Bell (2), Jamieson and Symms also scoring valuable tries.
In the dying seconds of the game with the score poised at 14 – 14, Will Symms made a characteristic dart across field before straightening up to storm down the touchline to score in the corner (his 5th of the match) and win the game for Rishworthians. Coach Dave Puddephatt awarded the effort award to Callum Bell with James McHugh winning the Man of the Match Award
Rishworthians U9
In a hastily rearranged game the Reds travelled to Skipton to take on the West District champions. Rishworth Reds took an early lead when Skipton spilled a loose ball. Will McDonnell pounced to secure good ruck ball and Jacob Bower moved into the scrum half position. Sensing that Skipton had over committed to the ruck,he picked up and sped down the blind side to score.Rishworthians kept up the momentum, Will McDonnell ripped the ball off his opponent and set off for the try line. It looked as if cover would block him, but a nifty side step opened up the defence and Will was through. The next score came from a Reds penalty move, the ball was passed to Jacob Bower who took the direct route, striding over the line imperiously to make it 15-0. Reds continued to dominate the game and Will McDonnell added to his tally, again breaking from scrum half and speeding over.Half time Skipton 0 - 20 Rishworthans
From the restart Charlotte Siddall showed tidy handwork to feed the ball onto Jack Davis who closed in on the Skipton line. Possession looked to have been lost, but, taking advantage from a knock on, Thomas Sweeten gathered the ball and balanced himself well to make the try look easy. Will McDonnell was in the thick of action again for the best try of the game. Before being swallowed up by the Skipton defence, he popped the ball to Dan Byrnes who sucked in three Skipton defenders, then offloaded back to Will looping behind and now with an open run to the line.The last try came from a flowing move. From a ruck, Sam Brant slipped the ball deftly to Jacob Bower who in turn slipped the ball to Thomas Cockroft on the burst only to be held short of the line. From the breakdown he positioned himself at stand off to take a pass and crashed over to put the Reds 35-0 ahead.
Skipton brought on their second squad for this game and took an early lead. Quick thinking at the front of the lineout gave the Skipton prop a chance to charge over the line and put Skipton into the lead at 5-0. The Reds, with only one team plus 4 subs were beginning to tire, but they launched an attack which was just held on the Skipton line but fortune fell to Thomas Creasy who quick to pounce on a loos ball sitting over the try ine and with a number of defenders simply looking at it.Skipton then spotted that Rishworthians had over committed in a ruck and with no defence down the blind side it was an easy score and brought Skipton back into the lead at 10-5. The Reds came back and with tired legs launched another attack. Thomas Creasy took the ball to within inches of the line and from the ruck, Will McDonnell had a sliver of a chance to let his legs do the work and sprinted cross field to make it in at the corner. A huge collective sigh of relief and the final whistle confirmed the draw – a fitting end to a very tight game.
