Rugby Union: Littleborough U9s, U11s and U15s

In the first outing of 2019 and his first in rugby union, young Jayden Kershaw inspired Littleborough Rugby Union Club under 9s to victory against Warrington. Having played rugby league for a number of years, Kershaw is not unaccustomed to running at a wall of defenders. 

Not only that but the rest of the team stepped up to the plate in what was a great morning's rugby for two very evenly matched teams.

There were some fine individual runs from all of lads on Adam Bracegirdle's team and also some great team tries as a result. A major plus point for the coaching team and supporters was the willingness to put the tackles in time and time again.

The other half of the Under 9 age group also went up against their Greater Manchester counterparts Warrington.

Just as Bracegirdle's team had, Neil Makinson's young side also made an impressive start to 2019; showing that training and hard work certainly pay off.

Some excellent team work and great organisation was rewarded with tries from Elliott Wells, Jack Ashworth and Lewis Wales and Archie Risdale.

As the anticipated tiredness showed on a big pitch after a long Christmas break, Littleborough showed their defensive game can also work well with some good strong tackles and constant defensive line.

Another Littleborough side working off the Christmas day turkey and chocolates were the Under 11s. They made the 70-mile road trip to Cheshire, more pertinently the Memorial Ground to play Wilmslow RUFC.

Playing in an unusual format due to the amount of players Wilmslow had, and away from home Littleborough coped well. It is not as easy playing against a full set of fresh legs every 15 minutes, which meant the visitors were up against a new team just as they got to work out how to play, having not played a game for four weeks and it took a while for Littleborough to settle in.

The last part of the second game, the coaches and parents alike started to see the team they all knew was there.

Even when the first and second game did not go in their favour, the willingness and determination to fight back and not let the game go meant those watching never doubted their quality.

Come the third game, after dealing with some fiery eruptions, Littleborough showed them exactly what they were made off.

The Wilmslow coach had time after the mornings' action to say how impressed he was with Littleborough's rucking, especially in the last game.

With plenty of rugby to come this season, lessons learnt from this game can help develop the potential in this young and exciting team.

In our final part of action from the first weekend of rugby in 2019, we had a tasty local derby at under 15 level.

Littleborough's under 15s boys helped by the return of a number of key players recorded an emphatic 36-5 victory away at Rochdale Rugby Union Club.