Panthers U7s travelled to Warrington on Sunday to take on a strong and well organised Rylands Sharks team.

Following a good warm up where the young Panthers appeared focused, expectations were good, unfortunately this did not carry through to the match and from the start Chorley were unable to make an early impression in attack and then bunched in their defensive line leaving space for the Sharks to easily run round them and get through to score. On their next attack the Panthers played a good set of three offloads in a drive for the line but unfortunately the Rylands defence held strong and prevented a score. Chorley’s defence improved on the next set with strong tackles being put in by Lewie O’Donnell, Harrison Chick and Charlie McDonald, as Rylands pushed for the line they played a good offload and caught the Panthers on the back foot allowing them through. The first period ended with Rylands leading by 2 tries to nil.

The second period followed a similar pattern to the first with both teams looking to keep the play alive by offloading the ball well when they had the chance. The difference between the two teams was again Chorley’s bunching in defence which allowed the Sharks to snatch the opportunities to extend the score line to 4 tries to nil.

The final period saw a more focused group of young Panthers as they attacked with intent, Mark Critchley managed to break through on the first set but was brought down to force the turnover. Chorley defended well on the next set and held Rylands out for the first time in the match, they then pressed forward and Jack Fairclough, who had been probing and trying to break through all game finally found the space to run through for Chorley’s first try. Rylands scored on the next set, but the Panthers were unable to double their tally with their last attacking set. The Sharks managed to add a final try on the last set of the match, when they again beat the Chorley defence by going wide, final score Rylands 6 tries, Chorley 1 try.

What was pleasing from the match today was the way the lads were all looking to offload the ball where they could. I was also really impressed with commitment to the tackle against some really big players, when you see Callum going up against a lad nearly twice his size without hesitation you know he’s enjoying his rugby. Well played all.


Try Scorer – Jack Fairclough

Player of the Match – Lewie O’Donnell
Top Tackler – Harrison Chick
Best Effort – Jack Fairclough