Rugby Union: Littleborough Colts 47 – 5 Caldy Colts

Littleborough continued their fine start to the season with another impressive 47-5 home victory against Caldy.

The home side opened the scoring early, following good play wide right by David Mills and Isaac Price that gave centre Kai Sumner space to go over down the left. Jacob Harrison converted to make it a seven-point advantage.

Littleborough then added to their score in a dominant first 15 mins.

Charlie Holmes brushed off a couple of Caldy forwards to take the home side to within metres of the visitor’s line before a well-timed run from Harry Gee sent the captain over. Again, Harrison found the sweet spot to fire the conversion.

Caldy began to find their feet into the game with the away team full back and centre causing some problems for Littleborough to deal with.

Fortunately, Littleborough were able to thwart the opposition at the breakdown though with Robbie Nolan, Holmes and particularly Matthew Rothwell all jackalling well and creating turnovers which prevented Caldy building any momentum.

Littleborough then added a score after another Rothwell turnover with Nolan setting up Charlie Sutcliffe in the corner. Another fantastic conversion from Harrison out wide gave Littleborough a 21-point lead at the break. 

Following some changes at half time, Littleborough’s form and dominance didn’t slip, and, if anything, went up a gear with the impact of Harry Law, Damion McCormick and Nick Mannion off the bench. 

As ever Mannion was carrying hard and busting tackles with a couple of long runs which took Littleborough in to the visiting 22.

Merseyside-based Caldy held out amicably until the resulting clearance saw full back Sutcliffe streak down the touch line, beating a handful of defenders to go under the posts. Conversion this time was successful from the boot of Brad Watts. 

Another score quickly followed as the home side made large game line yards from Ben Walton out wide, who took Littleborough forward.

The following phases from Matthew Bradbury and Will Mayoh took Littleborough close, before Ben Stott barrelled over from close range. Watts was this time unable to convert. 

Caldy weren’t going to let Littleborough have it all their own way though after some pressure and strong carries took them close to Littleborough line. 

The home side held out for a number of phases, Tom Laidler, Brody Hartley and Jack Ratcliffe putting in strong tackles but Littleborough couldn’t hold out any longer and the away side got a score: the only blemish on the Colts performance. 

It was Littleborough who had the final say though as David Mills crossed from 30 metres out with the final play of the game after some interplay between Watts and Nolan put the number 8 through a gap and Mills outpaced the defence to cross under the sticks.

The coaches have a real selection headache ahead of next week’s game against local rivals Bury Juniors, after Littleborough dispatched of Caldy in an all-round clinical team performance.