Great Sunday Morning Of Under 12'S Rugby

Match Report By Rob Leyland

After two consecutive Lancashire Cup weekends, it was back to ‘friendly’ fixtures for the Lions.

Wigan and Littleborough were visiting Round Ash Park to make up a mouth-watering ‘tri-fixture’.

Local rivals Wigan had visited just three weeks earlier with Leigh running out 5-0 victors on that occasion in a tough hour’s rugby.
The Lion’s hadn’t crossed swords with Littleborough since the u9’s season so they would be something of unknown quantity...

It was decided that the Lion’s would field two separate teams so everyone would get full game time...the sides were as follows:
Leigh 1: Jimmy, Ev, Lordy, Cal, Jermaine, Reece, Ben, Louie, Harry and Noah
Leigh 2: Mikey, Luke, Ol Wils, Jayden, Sam, Jack, Liam, Joe, Zack and Oz

I was watching ‘Leigh 2’ so the notes for ‘Leigh 1’s’ matches are courtesy of Tanya...

Game One: ‘Leigh 1’ 5 Littleborough u12’s 0
Louie opened the scoring after good work from Jimmy and Jermaine and then Jimmy went over for number two after a great drive from Harry secured good field position. Noah then crashed over, finishing off a lovely team move, to give Leigh a 3-0 lead at half time.
The second half was more of the same, Louie produced a fantastic turnover in the ruck to allow Noah to score another try and then Harry scored a cracking try, dodging four attempted tacklers, to touch down. Although the game looked quite one-sided on the scoreboard, Littleborough were certainly up for the physical battle and, with tempers flaring on both sides, the ref called time a few minutes early to prevent any major flashpoints occurring. A hard fought 5-0 win for the Lions!

Game Two: ‘Leigh 2’ 4 Wigan u12’s 1
Liam took the kick-off to get this game underway and Joe came up with a fine tackle to force a Wigan knock-on and Leigh secured possession from the resulting scrum. Joe tried an imaginative kick for Liam to chase, he got fortunate with the bounce and suddenly had the line at his mercy but a fine last ditch tackle forced him into touch. Wigan were looking like a team that meant business after they had been ‘Nilled’ on their last visit and they were enjoying a fine period of possession but Jack secured a wonderful turnover in the ruck to secure good ball for the Lions.
Leigh had weathered the storm and were now camped in the Wigan twenty two and, after Liam had been held up just short, Joe bamboozled the defence with a cheeky little scoot to open the scoring. Wigan hadn’t learnt their lesson when moments later, Zack picked up the ball in the scrum-half position and scooted down the blind-side only to be held up just short. Leigh were now dominating their rivals and when Sam crashed over moments later, to double their lead, you wondered whether Wigan heads would drop. The answer was...no! They forced Leigh back onto their own line and had the overlap on the open-side to allow them to go over in the right corner. 2-1 at half time and there were some slightly concerned looks on the Lion’s Faces.

Wigan kicked off to get the second half underway and Mikey took in the first drive of the half. After their late scare at the end of the first half, the Lions didn’t want to give Wigan any sniff of getting back on level terms and proceeded to put the visitors under all kinds of pressure. First, Luke nearly scored but was held up just shy of the line and then Ol Wils found himself in possession close to the Wigan line but was unable to force his way over. Joe tried another of his cross-field kicks but the bounce was unkind to Leigh with the line at their mercy. It looked like Leigh were going to struggle to break through the obdurate Wigan defence but, when they were awarded a penalty deep in Wigan territory, Joe fed Sam who was finally able to force his way over and extend Leigh’s lead. Liam then fielded a Clearance kick from Wigan and tip toed back through their defence to score number four and all but seal the victory. There were some late chances, Wigan put Leigh under a little bit of pressure before Luke nearly scored a full-lengther but the final whistle was blown and the Lions had secured a tough 4-1 victory.

Game Three: ‘Leigh 1’ 7 Wigan u12’s 1
Fresh from their 5-0 victory over Littleborough, ‘Leigh 1’ started this game full of confidence and when they secured a turnover right on the Wigan line, Jimmy dived over to give them an early lead. They doubled their lead soon after when a good pass inside found Reece who stormed over for 2-0. Wigan hit back with a fine run down the line although Leigh felt hard done by due to a suspicion of obstruction that prevented Ben from making the tackle. At 2-1, the next try would be crucial and luckily, it was Leigh who made the breakthrough...a good pass from Evan released Jermaine and he ran strongly before passing on to Lordy who went over to give the Lion’s a 3-1 lead at the break.
After the interval, Leigh set about putting a tiring Wigan side to the sword courtesy of two quick-fire tries from Cal. First, he picked up a loose ball to race half the length of the field and then he finished off a good team move to score their fifth try. With time running out, Wigan were struggling to put any phases together and Cal ripped the ball in a tackle and raced away for his third try of the half! The scoring was completed by Evan after a good break from Leigh. A strong 7-1 victory!

Game Four: ‘Leigh 2’ 4 Littleborough u12’s 5
The final game of the morning was by far the most exciting! Littleborough had succumbed to ‘Leigh 1’ by five tries to nil in the previous match and their coach had clearly got them focused and fired up for this game to ensure that they didn’t ‘roll over’ again. They went straight on the offensive, forcing Leigh back into their own twenty two, and made the Lion’s pay for some sloppy tackling to take a well deserved lead. The visitors continued to pile forward and put the usually solid Leigh defensive unit under serious pressure. When they were forced to kick clear, the Littleborough attacker fielded the ball and raced back through the Leigh backline, like a hot knife through butter, to double their lead.

The Lion’s looked shell-shocked and needed to score the next try to prevent the game getting away from them and that’s exactly what they did...a good kick chase created panic in the Littleborough defence and Luke was able to pick up the ball and race away down the left wing to half the deficit. Anyone who thought that that try would see ‘normal service resumed’ were mistaken and Littleborough again shocked the Lion’s defence with a clever individual try that saw the Littleborough player chase and catch his own kick to go over for their third try. The Lion’s now needed to show strong character to get back into this game and the ever willing Sam burst through heart of the visitor’s defence to cut the deficit to just one try and then Sam again made the initial break before passing to Liam who finished off the move to level things up at 3-3 at half time.

Littleborough kicked off to get the second half underway and immediately secured a turnover to win possession. After their fast start in the first half they had again started the quicker and they had the Lion’s seriously wobbling but, unlike the first half when they conceded two soft early tries, this time Leigh were determined to hold firm and somehow repelled phase after phase of Littleborough attacks to eventually secure a turnover and relieve the pressure. Having survived that early onslaught, Leigh looked to strike themselves and, after a strong set-up drive from Sam, Jayden zipped over to give Leigh the lead for first time in the entire contest. Having got their noses in front, Leigh went for the jugular and nearly scored with their next two attacks, first they conceded a penalty by fly-kicking when clean through and then a high hand-off put paid to their next attack when just yards from the line. Leigh were 4-3 up at this stage and with time ticking away they allowed themselves to be pushed back into their own twenty two and again found themselves under serious pressure from the rejuvenated Littleborough side who were unrecognisable from the team that had been ‘nilled’ earlier in the morning. The visitors poured forward and, after winning a penalty for a high tackle, they finally broke through to tie the scores at 4-4. With the seconds ticking away Leigh nearly won it when Luke raced on to a kick from Joe but the ref deemed him to have strayed off-side when the ball was kicked and from the resulting penalty, Littleborough crashed over to score with the final play of the game to secure a dramatic 5-4 victory.

That slight disappointment aside, it had been a wonderful morning’s rugby.

The fixture list shows a home fixture next week against Rochdale...
3, 2, 1...LIONS!