WIGAN ST JUDES ARLFC - MATCH REPORTS ROUND UP

Under 15s

St Judes 18-36 Waterhead

St Judes finished their NWC 2016 season campaign with a 18-36 home defeat to Waterhead Warriors.

A very lively Waterhead side were rampant in the first half, catching St Judes cold and hitting them with 4 unanswered to take 20-0 lead into the interval.

The second half however was a completely different story, despite conceding two early tries, St Judes suddenly found confidence and believe, and got themselves back into the game with tries from Harry Leigh, Connor Ramsdale, Kian Lawton, and the teams leading try scorer for 2016, Lewis Belshaw. The clock would ultimately halt the comeback and would see the Waterhead side runout eventual 36-18 winners.

Brandon Corfield was once again in outstanding form with ball on hand and deservedly given the man of the match award.

Under 12’s

Judes  26-0 Waterhead  0

Judes welcome Waterhead for our final game of the 2016 Season.  The team were eager to finish off the season in style, but it did take um a while to surface and it was our opponents who almost went over twice, only for a lack of execution.  Judes built and built throughout this game and great defensive pressure finally paid off almost 15 minutes into the game after a grubber, trapped Waterhead in the in-goal area.  From the resulting drop out, which was taken well and returned strongly by Harvey Makin who started the set and finished it off with what is now his signature move, to come crashing onto a ball from Lewis to crash over and score a well-deserved try, converted by James Richardson.  Both teams went toe to toe in defence in this half with Waterhead wanting the battle between the middles, but it was Judes who had the upper hand in attack and after only the first time the ball went out to the wings, Reagan Hunter capitalised by scoring in the corner, with a fantastic touch-line conversion by Callum Silcock.  Judes continued to pin Waterhead back and it wasn’t long before they were racking up the 3^rd try of the half, with a short ball from Ben to Reece Stanton in the middle of the park who used his stride fantastically to break through and shot off like a winger to score, ending the half 16-0.

Second half wasn’t dissimilar to the first with both teams facing each other head on.  Judes not really getting the rub of the green at first after good attacking plays didn’t go our way, James put in a great kick which was chased by Reece, who almost had it in his grasp, then Junior chasing up a hacked ball, only to be called offside.  A good break by Ryan was also caught by a good chase down by their defence and the final play saw a super kick from Lewis, which unfortunately took a wicked bounce into touch, although Reagan did his best to keep the ball alive.  Judes had to be patient and late on in the half was when the try of the game came, with Ryan taking the ball along the line and putting in a superb pin point kick that the Warriors would have been proud of!  It was taken superbly by James Richardson who ran for the whitewash to score, who also converted his try brilliantly………poetry in motion!  Judes ranked up the pressure in defence and continually forced their opponents to turn over the ball.  Judes are awarded a scrum for a knock down by Waterhead and from the base of the scrum, the ball was played to Ryan Wood who did a great run on the arch to go over in the corner.   Waterhead did finish the game on the attack and almost broke down the wing, only to be tracked and halted by Callum, although they were gifted a penalty and looked like the nil might slip, fortunately Waterhead are pulled for obstruction, so Judes kept their nil scoreline in-tact and came out worthy winners 26-0.

Fantastic end to a magnificent 2016 season with an incredible effort from all the lads.  This is the 12^th time we have nilled our opponents in this year’s competition to add to our Grand Final win to become commendable NW Counties u12s Champions .  Every player has been motivated and worked extremely hard throughout the whole season, some achievement from a superb bunch of young lads, who have deserved all the accolades this season!!  Today’s game put the icing on the cake nilling such tough opponents as Waterhead, who really turned up and put in a spirited performance.  Well Done lads and lets take this winning mentality through to next season!

Today awards go to:

Outstanding Efforts:      Callum Silcock, really dictated the game today, fantastic in defence and great kicking prowess. 

Ben Freeman great in defence and always first off the line, added to his good in field kicking game.

Assist:                          Reece Stanton, superb game in both attack and defence, been a stand out in all games this season, our big guy will always create something out of nothing!

Top Tackler:                  Richard Junior Nsemba, superb stats today in drives and defence, made 10 metres every drive and topped the tackle count.

Man of the Match:         Ryan Wood, produced the try of the game today, using his game awareness and putting in a very skilful kick.  Ran in for a try of his own too!

Under 10’s

Leigh Miners 40-12 St Judes

For our penultimate game of the 10's season the lads travelled to Leigh Miners. The squad was depleted with injuries and illness running through the team, however the game started brightly with both teams testing each other out, before Rohan darted and weaved his way through the Miners defense to go in at the corner, converted by Alex Birch.  Unfortunately that seemed to wake up the Miners who went up a gear and took advantage of Judes' slack defense and missed tackles to score 5 unanswered tries and the boys went into half time 6-30 down.

The lads seemed to get their act together in the second half, but allowed the Miners number 20 too much respect with him going through 6 or 7 sets of hands to score before Scott Finney showed some good strength to break the Miners line to go over in the left hand corner for his first ever Judes try, which he also converted.  Unfortunately the Miners were not yet done and scored again just before the end to make the final score 12 - 40.

This was definitely a puzzling game and the lads should be proud of their display in the second half but unfortunately which seems to be the pattern this season the damage was done in the first half with sloppy tackling  and non man marking being our downfall again.

Despite the score line the lads did well with only 1 sub against a full strength Miners team.

Well done lads

Man of the Match: Rohan Green

Coaches Award: Alex Birch

Parents Player Award: Harry Stokes

Effort and Achievement Award: Scott Finney

Our last game of the season next week is a home game against Halton Farnworth

Under 7’s

Leigh miners 14-25 Wigan st judes  

 Our u7s st judes side travelled to Leigh miners today with 13 players we managed to play 2 6 a side games with 1 of our lads playing for miners in each quarter to get all the lads playing 40 mins 

Game 1 

finished 11-7 to judes 

1st quarter 

Judes started with the ball with some good running from the 1st 3  runners got us up the field with Mason chisnall going over in the corner for his first of his hatrick 

Then judes turn to tackle with an outstanding display of defence from all the lads kept miners out for a full set of 6 

Judes stepped up with a brilliant run from Ellis corfield to go the full length of the field round the outside for his first of 4 today 

Our defence really stepped up and managed to keep miners out for the full 1st quarter 

2nd quarter 

Miners came straight at us from the start with some strong running and got over for their 1st 

Then stepped up Harrison Oakes with a brilliant side step to pierce miners defence 

Miners again came at us with some good hard running and managing to slip the ball out and score another 

Our lads didn't give up with some hard yards from big jack Elwick for then Mason chisnall to score for his 2nd 

Again our defence switched back on and kept miners out again with some awesome tackles from Harrison and Jack Myers then stepped up Ellis again who ran round the whole miners team to score his 2nd of the game 

3rd quarter 

Up stepped Luke Brussels with a bursting run to step his way through the miners defence 

Miners came back at us again with some big strong runs and managed to get the ball out wide to score in the corner 

Our lads started to throw the ball about with some good passing from Mason Jack m big Jack  and Harrison to put Ellis through for his 3rd 

Miners again gaining confidence came back at us to score again 

Our lads never gave up and went straight back at them with a superb run from Mason to go over for his hatrick 

4th quarter 

Miners started with the ball and again scored 

Then again with some brilliant passing through a few hands Jack Myers spotted a gap in the miners defence and managed to dive over the try line 

Miners again kept coming never giving up scored again 

Again through some great passing managed to get the ball all the way through the full teams hand putting Ellis in down the wing to score his 4th 

Our defence switched off a little and let miners in for their last try 

But judes came straight back at them with great running and passing from cody smith to put big jack Elwick through a gap to score our last try of the

Special mentions to 

Edwin peposhi,Lewis fairhurst,Cody smith and Luke Brussels for offering to play for miners so that we could play 2 games 

Try scorers 

Mason chisnall 3

Ellis corfield 4 

Harrison Oakes 1

Jack m 1

Luke Brussels 1

Jack Elwick 1

Game 2 

Leigh Miners Rangers   7 St Judes  14 

1st quarter

St Judes dominated from the start with Ethan opening up the scoring with his first run. Judes defence was outstanding holding Leigh Miners out on every set. 2nd try for Judes came from Archie using a great side step and to finish the quarter  Lewis stepped up and smashed over the line for Judes 3rd. The quarter finishing 3-0 to Judes.

2nd quarter

Judes continued with that great defence that we have all been waiting for with Tadgh and Cody putting in some great tackles to hold Leigh out set after set. From the turn over came some great attacking from Judes once again with Ethan, Archie and Tadgh scoring in this quarter. Leighs heads didn't go down and come back to score their first try of the game to finish the quarter off.

3rd quarter 

Saw the team switch ends and Judes starting with the ball and Edwin scoring a great try fending off a number of players.  Leigh hit back on there set and scored a great try. Ethan then took his turn and took it over the line again for Judes followed by Lewis with another great try. Leigh hit back and scored which then saw Kyle take it across and forward to score his first try of the season. Leigh fought back again to score the final try of the quarter.

4th quarter

With Judes flying high with this outstanding performance and attack saw Tadgh the terror rip it up with  a great drive ploughing over Leigh to see the white wash.  This did not faze Leigh as they set up and pushed forward for another try.  Ethan took the first drive of the set which saw him stepping and weaving to run three quarters length of the pitch to score his fourth and final try of the game. The Judes defence continued strong holding out another set from Leigh.  Lewis then took the ball dodged and weaved two tackles to put it down in the middle of the sticks. Judes held Leigh out yet again.  Turnover for Judes saw Ethan take the ball and pass to Archie who took it over for Judes final try. But it didn't end there as Leigh fought back and finished off the morning for the final try of the game.

Top tackler- Tadgh

All round performance-Archie

Special mention to all the the boys who was picked to play under my coaching I couldn't be more happy with an all around performance it was fantastic ! 

Same again next week