Latchford vs Pilks Recs u8's

Today Pilks visited a very good side in Latchford, who were a credit to their coaches and fought well against a rapidly improving Pilks side.
Prior to the game teams from Pilks , Latchford and Wigan St Pats U8's held a minutes applause in memory of Huddersfield youth team player, Ronan Costello.
When the whistle blew for kick off, both teams served up an excellent game of rugby league , running hard , tackling well and generally doing their coaches ,and parents really proud.

The first quarter flew by with both teams trading great sets, with Pilks eventually leading 3-2 at the break. Recs try's coming from Josh Hunt , Noah Heaton , and Connor Stubbs.
I was especially impressed with Noah's try as it came from a set move that we've been working on, and we used for the first time.
Even more pleasing was the goal line defence. Every week our defence has been improving , but today went up a level again. on several occasions we kept them out for three or four tackles by getting off the line quickly.

The second quarter, Recs ran out 4-1 winners, again defending our line for our lives and scoring some superb try's when we had the ball.
Our try scorers were Billy Traynor with 2 and a try apiece for Connor Stubbs and Aaron King.

In the third quarter Latchford came back hard at Pilks , with Recs superb defence being breached three times by some strong running.
Pilks however grabbed another three try's, another for Billy Traynor and also great try's for Harvey Cathcart, and Jak Davies.

In the final quarter, unlike last week Recs showed no sign of wilting, in fact they seemed to get better, the longer the game went on, scoring three try's to one .
Recs scorers were Josh Hunt with 2 more and another from Connor Stubbs.
I do have to say that they saved my favourite try for last. While we had an injured player they got together and planned a set move, and it worked perfectly.

Captain today was Harvey Cathcart, and like a true captain he led from the front , making great runs, tackling well and grabbing himself a superb try.

Also playing today were

Ethan Cranny, Ethan played his heart out today, making some great jinking runs, supporting the play, and tackling everything that ran at him.

Jak Davies, this lad is getting better week by week he ran well, scoring yet another try, but his defence was awesome, at on point stopping their biggest lad dead in his tracks.

Noah Heaton , Noah has been brilliant over the last few weeks. He has been one of the best tacklers lately, moving out really quickly and wrapping the ball but today he's running was even more impressive, also getting on the score sheet.

Josh Hunt, wow, what a game again today. Ran strong, tackled well and grabbed himself a hat-trick . Really unlucky today not to get the special awards, but that just shows how well everyone played.

Our joint Top Tacklers today were
Connor Stubbs, Connor is really channelling his aggression well in defence lately, and today was no different . He's out quick, wraps the man and ball, and dominates every tackle he's involved in.
he also grabbed another hat-trick.

Aaron king, defensively Aaron has struggled of late but today he really stepped up. He defended his wing really well, hardly allowing anyone past him, which was important as they were struggling to break us down, through the middle so they tried to go out wide on several occasions.
He also scored his first try in a couple of weeks and did some great runs.

Our joint Man Of The Matches were.
James Hatton , James has been away for a few weeks but it was like he's never been away. Although he didn't score today he must have set up three or four try's with his superb running. Even more impressive was his defence. He's one on one tackling is second to none. Because he's small in stature opponent target him, big mistake, they don't do it twice

Billy Traynor, this award has been coming for a few weeks now . I have to say that Billy understands the game like a player much older than he is. He directs play talks to team mates , telling them what he wants from them, and has a really good rugby brain.
today he tackled really well, grabbed two tries and set one up where he was being bundled into touch by four defenders and somehow flicked the ball insideto an unmarked team mate five yards out.

I have to say that the hard work of the players have really started to pay off over the last few games and as a coach I'm really starting to see an improvement.
Like I said earlier I could not be more proud of the lads than I am today.
Well done KEEP IT UP !!!!!