Pilkingtons U8's 5 - 5 West Houghton Lions

Today started with another minutes silence and this one probably the most emotional one I have been involved in. It was in memory of a young St Helens lad not much older than our own boys who were playing the game and it was this tragedy on our own door step to such a young child that brings everything in to perspective.
RIP Harrison Ledsham taken at the tender age of 12.

With the minute silence respected by all, the game got under way and this was a great game to be involved with.
The first half was a hard fought defensive battle and both teams made good yards up the pitch but both team were held to just two tries a piece at the half way stage.

In the second half Pilks came out firing on all cylinders and started to play some really good rugby in both defence and attack,
Pilks got on top off the opposition and were in danger of blowing West Houghton away when Nathan Flynn went over the try line only to get his try disallowed, being adjudged that he had bounced the ball over the line.
With one perplexing decision after another Pilks found themselves behind by one try, with one set left but as usual there was no complaining by our boys they just got on with the game and got their just deserts with a try in the last set to draw the game 5 ties each.

This for me was a great performance by all and out of our 5 tries we had four different try scorers, proving again we are not a one man team and every single player is important.

Honorary captain Rohan Heyes lead from the front scoring again this week and really protecting his wing well with some great tackles.

Player of the match Nathan Flynn was outstanding today adding another try to his tally and joint top tackler with some great tackles.

Tackler of the match Sam Nevitt one of our two debut boy's today, just out did his brother for tackler of the match only because his technic was slightly better and wasn't far from scoring his first try.

Parent Choice Rhys Edwards was outstanding again this week, up there in the tackle count and scored two tries.

Joseph Hunter asked could he defend a bit wider this week, so he was put in the centre position when defending and this he seemed to really enjoy running well and tackling well too.

Ben Lynch seems to be low on confidence at the minute, choosing to pass rather than taking his run but this didn't stop him being involved in Pilks best move of the match, selling the dummy on the blind side leaving the defence wrong footed which allowed Rhys to score in the opposite corner.

Ryan Halsall has been defending one wing for the past two weeks which has impacted his stats a bit but the tackles he has put in have been good and his strong running style always gains good yards.

Max Nevitt the other of our debut boy's and the youngest player on the team played really well in both attack and defence and like I said only just missed out on tackler of the match to his brother.

George Donoghue did something today that I noticed in training and that was he ran strong and straight with a determination on his face like he really gets it now and he believes he can run over players.

Jack McIntyre was really unlucky not to get player of the match this week we quite literally had to flip a coin to decide and that is only good for our team that we have hard decision to make when it comes to giving out special awards and he was one of our four different try scorers.

This weeks featured player is George Donoghue

Football Team I don't like football
Favourite Football player I don't know any, I don't like football
Favourite Rugby Team Saints (and Pilks)
Favourite Rugby Player Adam Swift (and Dave Flynn)
Favourite Film Ninjago Master's of Spinjitzu
Favourite Food Everything, all food except Hot Pot I hate Hot Pot
Favourite Game Playing Army with Ryan

Well done today boys, you all did well against all odds keep it up