Under 9s Edge It At Sedgley

Phil’s Team:
The under 9s made the trip to Park Lane Whitefield to take on a determined Sedgley Park Tigers. This was the toughest opposition so far this season and Wigan had to raise their game to new heights to secure victory.

There were many heroic performers for the black and whites, none more so than Noah Salloum who showed great courage with the ball and particularly with 22 tackles in defence. His courage was again visible after a high swinging arm tackle burst his nose, and after quickly getting patched up he was soon raring to get back on the field.

Benito Cusani was very effective with ball in hand and his elusive running, stepping and offloads were a thrill to watch. Even dad Chas was forced raised his eyebrows in pride after one of his 7 tries was finished off with superb footwork to send the cover defence in the opposite direction.

This was big Will Davies’s best game of the season with forceful drives, and a hat-trick of tries including a long range effort where we finally saw his great pace and long strides. Will managed 3 offloads as well, showing the ability to hold off defenders and find support.

Despite all of the above, it was George however who was the pick on attack - dominating the scoresheet with 8 tries, many of which were spectacular efforts of speed and footwork. George has a natural try predator instinct and has been consistently excellent in all our matches. He burned off several opponents to score some cornerflag efforts.

Henry contributed 13 tackles - all technically superb of course, and Jacob again produced a brace of tries and solid defensive effort including a couple of last ditch crunchers that had the crowd wincing.

Alex and Lukus were both key contributors to the cause, with Lukus showing great bravery with tackles on far bigger opposition players and 3 offloads. Alex topped the team offloads and assists with 6 - which is a super stat and shows him to be a true team player.

The most pleasing aspect of today was the last 10 minutes of play when trailing by a try, the guys got the mini hairdryer treatment and delivered 3 unanswered tries to win the match.

The winning record was maintained - but only just.

Sedgley Park contributed a lot to a great morning of rugby, and this was a notable victory for sure. It’s clear we have a special bunch of players and we really have high hopes for the rest of the season.

Nick’s Team:
On a lovely sunny morning in north Manchester, Wigan Under 9s continued their fantastic start to the season by winning two tough matches against a couple of good Sedgley teams.

The Wigan lads started off well, and after a couple of minutes the first try of the match was scored by Archie, who took a pass on the halfway line and galloped through the opposing players like an angry dray-horse, scattering Sedgley players left, right and centre.

Sedgley fought back however, and the match went to and fro, and finished with Wigan one try up. The second game did prove a little bit easier however, but was still a close contest.

By the end of both matches, top try scorer was Finlay with 7, and his back-up play was reminiscent of ex-Rugby League poacher Gary Schofield – albeit with less of a moustache.

Behind him on the try scoring total were Wilson and Oliver, who matched each other with 4 tries each, and both made 12 tackles. Most impressive however, was the inter-passing between them and Finlay, with Oliver just edging it with a couple more passes.

Tom, Jack and Sam worked hard, and supported each other well as usual – with Sam also managing to score a try. The next step in their development will be to encourage them to pass to someone who doesn’t have the same surname!

Daniel, was impressive in his first match, and very unlucky not to score a try himself after a bustling run toward the end of the match, but the last try did eventually come just before referee Beale blew the final whistle, and it was scored by bulldozer Harry – who was voted Parents’ Man of The Match.

A good performance yet again, and the team just keep getting better and better.

And a special thanks to our match day Stattos – Chas and Warren, and also to Mike ‘Alan Carr’ Smith for his sterling work on the stats last week.

Although, I’m sure Warren and Mike will be happy to hand the pen and clipboard back to Rob on his return next Sunday!

Awards:
Parents’ Man Of The Match – Harry
Coaches Man Of The Match – Oliver
Top Tackler – Noah
Top Try Scorer – George
Most Passes - Oliver