St. Cuthberts 14 v Orrell St. James' 36

Newly promoted St. Cuthberts fought hard but were no match for a well drilled Orrell St James'. The visitors opened the scoring inside 2 mins when centre Sam Baggaley was put though on a set play and Danny Pyke added the extras. Swift passing put Baggaley in again to give St.James' a 10 pt lead. Full back Mc Namee replied for Cuthberts, stealing the ball from a high kick to give stand-off Meehan an easy conversion. This inspired the home team and sturdy defence kept the visitors at bay until the closing stages of the first half. However, a powerful surge by Leo Barr and a conversion by David Kennedy gave the visitors a 10 pt advantage at half time 6-16

St James' commenced the 2nd half as they started the first when an audacious dart from a.h.b. Jake Davies set the scoreboard ticking again. Kennedy's conversion took the lead to 6 - 22. St Cuthberts rallied and, using the slope to good advantage, with early kicks, narrowed the lead to 14 -22 as winger Barton and centre Hunt scored unconverted tries. Orrell were not to be outdone and a high kick by Pyke collected by Ryan Ellis gave the powerful prop the chance he need to go in under the posts. Kennedy inexplicably missed the conversion but had no difficulty converting a try by full back Jack Mc Hugh backing up a break by Tom Whittle. Winger Damian Hayton scored a try in the closing stages to complete a well earned win for Orrell.

St. Cuthberts will be no pushovers in this league with tough tackling forwards and an astute half back and were perhaps unfortunate to face an Orrell side looking in fine form for the campaign ahead.

D. Mc Hugh