St Helens v Wigan Warriors - Under 18s Valvoline Academy.
Saturday 9th April 2011. Kick Off 2:30pm at Thatto Heath Crusaders ARLFC.

Match Summary

In fairness game ending injuries very early in the game to Tom Hurst (suspected broken ankle) and John O'Donnell (shoulder) really did not help Wigan's cause. It was a hot day (despite the breeze) and to be reduced to two interchange options so early really made it hard work.

For that reason I think Wigan did well in the second half. They had a good dig, particularly Louis Jackson I thought, he led the way up front. He claimed a try, along with an earlier score for Shae Lyon-Fraser, which made it 30-10 with half an hour to go but the second half was very stop start and in the final ten minutes the tiredness of losing two bench options really took it's toll. Saints claimed three late scores to make the final scores 44-10.

The match was refereed by former Castleford, Halifax and Huddersfield player Jamie Bloem and I thought he did very well indeed. Except that for all the stoppages in the second half (and their were plenty for stuff like cramp etc), he ended up adding just twenty seconds on. I mean in the end I was glad because the Wigan legs had gone but how does that work exactly? He seemed to be stopping his watch every time!

So that's two losses from two for the Under 18s who have struggled so far with an inexperienced half back combination struggling to get a foothold. Leeds then Saints is a tough start though. The next three games against Hull KR, Crusaders and Castleford (all at Orrell) should give us a clearer picture of how the team is going at this level.

Team Sheets

Score Sheet

Scoring and Incident Pattern

Referee

Jamie Bloem