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Wigan
Warriors v Castleford Tigers - Under
20s Valvoline Cup. |
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Match Summary |
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With players like Iain Thornley, Josh Veivers, Stuart Howarth and
Jonny Molloy all moving on in the off season, and both Stefan Marsh
and Josh Charnley being on stand by for the first team, it was a
pretty new and young Under 20s side that turned of for their first
game of the season. Add to that the likes of Liam Farrell and Chris
Tuson being more involved in the first team these days then it's
pretty much a new era at this level, a level which we've been
champions for the last three years in a row.
Often in the academy grades you see players play well and then emerge as leaders as they get older, because with the natural turnover for players they progress into seniority. So it'll be interested to see who does that. It's a pretty young half back combo. Sam Powell is still only 18, whilst Stand Off Chris Taylor is even younger at 17. He was playing in our Under 16s side last year but after just 5 Under 18s games at the back end of last season he has progressed forward very quickly. Logan Tomkins is now in the senior player mould as well but I felt we were far quicker from dummy half when Liam Carberry came on around the 50th minute mark. Logan did return but playing as a half back (I think) and I think he played better in that position, marking his performance with a try. For third year in a row Wigan were beginning their campaign a week later than their opponents, after our opener against Bradford was postponed. Castleford beat Huddersfield 62-8 last week but didn't really show signs of that kind of form. Sometimes at this level the standard is so poor that Wigan beat teams with simple quicker thinking, quicker pace, ripping teams apart from deep. This contest wasn't like that though. We had to work hard in the forwards for the win. It was a slow first half but Wigan managed to claim two tries, through Ben Davies and Ryan King, before Castleford responded with a try from Ben Blackmore, which left the half time score 12-6 to Wigan. Like I said Liam Carberry came on early in the second half and I think we upped the tempo at this point. Perhaps shown by two tries in quick succession, on 51 and 54 minutes, from first Jack Murphy then Sam Powell. Greg Eden got another try back for Cas but as I said Logan Tomkins came back on playing in the halves and scored an excellent try from his own little dink kick towards the posts. The final try was scored by Jamie Acton, a player Wigan signed from Hemel Stags in London after a successful trial during the pre season. He chimed at the line down the right wing and had to much power to be stopped. Cas got a late consolation try from Joe Pickets three minutes from time but Wigan were comfortable 34-16 winners overall. |
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Team Sheets |
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*Denotes Over Aged Player. Three Over Age 20 Players Allowed Per Team |
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Score Sheet |
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Scoring and Incident Pattern |
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Referee |
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Jonathan Roberts |
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Weather |
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Dry but it was bloody freezing in the shed. |
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