A game of rugby league on an artificial pitch!!!

It was the first time in my career and I'm sure some of the players that ventured out onto the greenest pitch I have ever seen in my life.

We played Leigh East the competition leaders on a synthetic style artificial grass that was full on miniature rubber pellets, it was certainly a very fast game and one that Leigh were very used of.

I thought throughout patches of the game on Saturday that we played very well and really stood up to be counted against the league leaders of division 3 and at one stage in the second half got back to a score line of 20-14, at this stage of the game I thought that we might have been a chance.

Leigh East compiled 36 points against us on Saturday which I am a little disappointed at especially after last weeks mammoth effort, but when playing the very good sides in the competition it's all about slowing the process of the play the balls and shutting down the wide passing options that is the key when playing opposition sides of this caliber.

It was minor lapses of concentration with throwing arms at people rather than shoulder s and shoulder charging and not finishing the tackles that really hurt us on the weekend. With the good sides in the competition they rely heavily on second and third phase play this being the second and third passes from the play the ball, our first phase tackling was poor and the ball was not being rapped up in the tackle this allowed for the opposition side to move the ball around the pitch which used multiple defenders to try to shut the play down.

If you're defensive pattern is good and we are closing the oppositions play into a phase one attack this allows for our defensive line to be set a lot earlier and doesn't take as much juice out of the tank.

We scored some great individual tries close to the line with Mark Walker scoring 2 and Josh O'Donnell showing great determination to crash through multiple defenders near the Leigh East line, Billy Livingstone added the extra 6 points with 3 good conversions.

In the ensuing weeks of the competition it is going to be our defense that will be the catalyst of whether we win or lose, we are able as a team to score some brilliant tries and I am confident of scoring over 20 points each week, it is how many points we allow the opposition sides to accumulate that will be the vital ingredients to an impending victory.

Till Next week:

GO THE ATOMS!

Scott Saddler

Thanks Carolyn and Pauline for watching last week.

Leigh East 36 18 Heysham Atoms

Bamber Bridge 30 36 West Bank Swans

Hindpool 12 36 Blackpool Scorpions

Glazebury Broncos 8 20 Leigh Miners Rang

Waterhead 14 26 Ince Rose Bridge