A Sunny start at Newton began with Rangers on the defence. Unfortunately the large players of Newton seemed to unnerve Saddleworth and they were allowed to score almost straight away. Rangers then attacked with Charley Mayers, Thomas Whitehead, Dylan Lomax and Ben Holmes all making excellent progress up the pitch. Unfortunately for Tommy Jackson, he was unable to find a way through to score, so it was up to the final runner, Ellis Barnes who scored.

Newton again scored unchallenged to regain their lead. It was then up to Rangers to restore the status quo. Ross Heald, Max Arden, Rory Lloyd, Ben Holmes and Thomas Whitehead again made good progress before an excellent passing manoeuvre between Dylan Lomax, Charley Mayers and Thomas Whitehead. Unfortunately Newton’s defence stood resolute and no way through could be found.

Rangers’ defence was starting to gain confidence when putting in tackles and some good work from Ross Heald, Thomas Whitehead and Max Arden looked to be holding them at bay before they again broke through and scored. Rangers' then seemed to be on course for another try when a knock-on unfortunately stopped the attack and handed possession back.

Brilliant tackling from an increasingly confident defence this time held out Newton and ultimately forced a mistake handing possession back to Rangers. Thomas Whitehead then made a good run and set up Dylan Lomax who made excellent progress up the field before unfortunately being bundled into touch. From this Newton again scored unchallenged.

Saddleworth, having seemingly gained confidence in their attacks from the previous sets, then went on the attack. Ellis Barnes, Rory Lloyd, Tommy Jackson, Ross Heald and Dylan Lomax, who laid the ball off brilliantly to Thomas Whitehead, all set up Ben Holmes to score.

An error prone couple of sets saw both teams immediately knock on before Newton scored another try despite the best efforts of Ross Heald who made a couple of great tackles.

Saddleworth’s next attack came to nothing before Newton were again allowed to score almost unchallenged. Ben Holmes then started the Rangers attack with a strong run straight at the Newton defence. Ross Heald, Ellis Barnes and Max Arden made further progress before Thomas Whitehead rounded the defence to score. Newton had time to score one more unchallenged try before the teams broke for half-time with the score at 7-3


Saddleworth started the second half on the attack and Ben Holmes, Dylan Lomax and Tommy Jackson all came within inches of scoring but were excellently held out by Newton’s defence. Tackles from Dylan Lomax and Ross Heald then Ross Heald again and Max Arden stopped Newton’s first two runners before they were allowed to run round the Rangers’ defence to score again.

Another good attack from Rangers saw them again come agonisingly close, this time it was Ben Holmes who couldn’t quite make the final yard required to score. This was followed by Charley Mayers brilliantly pushing the first Newton attacker into touch immediately regaining possession for Rangers.

Rangers then went on to score the try of the match. Dylan Lomax started the attack, brilliantly laying the ball off to Ross Heald who passed on to Charley Mayers. Ellis Barnes and Max Arden made good progress before another brilliant passing manoeuvre between Ross Heald, Thomas Whitehead and Ellis Barnes gained more valuable yards. Thomas Whitehead then made the pass of the game to Tommy Jackson who had an easy job of scoring.

Newton then scored another unchallenged try before Rangers again attacked. Ross Heald, Rory Lloyd, Tommy Jackson, Ben Holmes and Charley Mayers set up Ellis Barnes to score his second try of the game.

Both sides then showed some excellent defensive work with no tries being scored for four sets before Rangers – while making excellent progress up the field – had a pass brilliantly intercepted and Newton were able to score an opportunistic try.

Rangers then attacked again with Tommy Jackson, Ellis Barnes Charley Mayers and Max Arden making good runs before Thomas Whitehead made a brilliant dummy to make space which he ran through to score.

Another unchallenged try for Newton brought the game to a close with the final score at 11-6.


At times Rangers defended brilliantly and the majority of Newton’s tries were almost unchallenged. But for these defensive lapses, the result could have been a lot different.