Wigan St Judes 16-18 Ince Rose Bridge

Tough to take this one, just wasn’t to be as Ince Rose Bridge ran out winners 16-18. Ball respect being a major factor for St Jude’s with a 44% completion Rate in the game. Tries by Gav Rodden, Connor Ratcliffe and a cracker by Aaron Smith who just ran over anybody in his way to give Jude’s the lead on 47 mins.Fallon slotted over 2 Goals but Ince Rose Bridge never say die attitude payed off with a high kick on the 6th tackle near the Jude’s line in the 61st minute when they scored the winner to win 16-18

Wigan St Judes 34-10 Ince Rose Bridge

Well we kick start our 2019 campaign at home, in somewhat soggy conditions. As the reigning champions, we were under a bit of pressure to perform, but did have quite a few lads out today. Judes were a bit sloppy in the first few minutes, struggling to complete their sets, but soon found their feet when Harvey Makin stepped up and did what he does best, ball under arm, head down and run over defenders, culminating in a nice 4 pointer at the side of the sticks.

Super impressed with our defence today, some massive hits from the lads turning ball after ball over. After forcing a drop out, came our next try which was well deserved for our loose forward Eliot Peposhi, who ran hard and tackled even harder today. He took the ball from dummy half and reached over to score a cheeky try.

Another booming kick from Callum trapped Bridge in the in-goal and Judes attack their line. Keeping the ball alive, they send it down the line to Reece Stanton, who shot off to score his first in the corner. His second try came in quick succession from sheer grit and determination, kept his legs pumping and carried 3 defenders with him over the line to plonk the ball down and score his second. Callum Silcock converted all tries successfully, even nailing a difficult kick from the side line.

Judes restart the second half and Bridge were the first to strike scoring 2 quick tries, although one from a dubious forward pass! Judes were a little rattled and were being sucked in by Bridge, all they had to do is get back to doing what they do best and just play rugby! The next set was more settled and a strong direct run from Reece Stanton saw him securing his hatrick, this lad had an outstanding game today and really deserved the hatrick. The conversion was taken successfully by Callum Silcock who was great with the boot today.

A good grubber through from Lewis looked too long, but stood up in the mud, so Bridge were forced to kick it dead. This gave us our third drop out and a good opportunity to attack again in the dying minutes of the game. Judes build some pressure and Lewis Pinder took the opportunity to bag himself a brazen 4 pointer, sneaking round from dummy half to catch the defender napping and twisting round on the floor to ground the ball. Conversion taken by Callum Silcock, we were all gob-smacked that the ref waived it off, as it did look like it went over, so we are technically saying Callum was 100% with the boot today!! We just had time to re-start the game before the clock ran out and the final whistle, saw us secure our first win of the season.

Our first game of the season wasn’t pretty, but considering how many lads we had out injured today and the difficult conditions, it was a determined win. Every lad stuck his hand up and really put an outstanding performance in. Our defence won us this match and our shots were brutal throughout the game. A massive Judes welcome to Alfie Pyke, who played his debut for us today and had a cracking game.

Today’s man of the match was chosen by Bridge and deservedly went to our hooker Lewis Pinder, who was outstanding today directing our lads around the pitch and massive in defence, continuing his good form from last season. Well done Lewis!