Wigan U11's v Widnes and West Park

The first fixture of the season-proper was a round-robin at home against local rivals Widnes and West Park. The visitors played each other in the first match and this gave us a chance to see what we were up against. Certainly both sides looked strong and well drilled.

DV was filled with cold fog and looked more wintery than autumnal and pitches were pretty soft.

Wigan v Widnes

Wigan started well, with persistent early pressure and good quick defending, keeping all the play in the Wids half. Kyle soon opened the scoring. No sticks to aim at today, so no points for conversions were available. Now brimming with confidence Wigan wanted a second try and is wasn’t long in coming. A stunning team effort using the full width of the pitch, with some particularly fine handling from Harry Joss and Brad, with Mack perfectly placed on the left wing to finish in the corner. Wigan’s reactions at re-starts were good and a fine effort by Brad with a neat pass to Joss who broke through the Wids defence and covered much of the length of the field for Wigan’s third. Soon after, Mack tracked over to the right wing to get on the end of a pass from Brad to score another try, almost a mirror image of his first. Wigan had to defend in between of course, and a great tackle by Joss soon paid dividend when the ball came back to him and he was able to go over for his second just on half time.

Score at the break
Wigan 4 tries Widnes 0.

Wigan continued to mean business in the second half. Every player was getting involved both defencively and in going forward, including new signing Ethan. Sam, William and Harry all making great tackles and penetrating runs forward. Soon enough, in his first match, Ethan got his well deserved first try. Wigan continued to play some excellent rugby keeping a defensive clean-sheet.

Full time: Wigan 5 tries Widnes 0

Second Game: Wigan v West Park

Our second game was to be more of a challenge. Park had looked the stronger of the two opponents and they were coming into the final game slightly fresher than ourselves. Fortunately the fog cleared and the sun came out raising spirits all round.
From Harry’s kick-off into the right-hand corner and Kyle’s great follow-up tackle some intelligent play by Joss opened the scoring bolstering Wigan’s confidence.
This was a closer game than our first, but still Wigan kept Park in their own half. Brad crossed the line but unluckily was held-up by a very determined West Park.
From good defence comes opportunity, and a great tackle from Harry was pivotal in presenting Joss with a chance for his third of the day. Further fluent attacking play from Mack and Brad was finished by Joss for his fourth. Again all the team were working hard defencively too, with Harry, Jacob, Sam and Christian making outstanding contributions. Kyle got his name on the scoresheet., adding to Wigan’s lead, but credit to West Park who didn’t cave in. A great run from Harry gained a lot of ground and his expert off-load put William in in the corner. Kyle got another, largely self-made, try after powering his way through numerous defenders and rolling out of some half-tackles.

Somewhere in there we had a half-time, but the action was so intense I didn’t note it.

This was a fine team performance by Wigan to get the season off to a rousing start. An eminent Premier-League Manager recently was quoted saying that he would have happily paid to watch his team play. Having seen Wigan U11s today, I know what he means. It was magnificent. Well done to all players and coaches.

Full time: Wigan 5 tries West Park 0.

Squad:
Brad, Christian, Eli, Ethan, Harry, Jacob, Joe, Joss, Kyle, Louis, Luca, Mack, Sam, Tom, William.

Man of the Match: Joss

Tries:
Kyle 3
Mack 2
Joss 3
Ethan 1
William 1