HORNETS ROUND-UP

HORNETS made a dream start when centre Craig Yates sidestepped his way through for an excellent try, converted by Ste Hunt. Captain, Ste Hunt then scored and converted his own try to give Hornets a well deserved 12-0 half-time lead.

The second-half witnessed a terrific fight-back by Woolston to level the scores. Not to be denied, Hornets fought back bravely to score a converted try by mom Ste Hunt.

The task appeared complete when a typical individual try from loose-forward Ste Yates and a further Ste Hunt conversion, once again put Hornets 12 points ahead.

With two minutes remaining Woolston scored an unconverted try in the corner to complete the scoring.

Both sides were a credit to rugby league, with Hornets continuing to impress.

This weekend the Hornets are involved in the National Cup. The U18s have received a bye, while the u14s travel to Yorkshire to play Kings Cross from Halifax. The u16s are at home to Mary Port from Cumbria. The kick-off is 1pm and weather permitting will be played at Birchfield Club in Birchfield Road.

Orrell St J u14s 10 Hornets u14s16

NWC KO Cup Final

THIS stop-start season got underway again with this match being played at Orrell RUFC because of the poor state of St James' own ground.

Even so the conditions were very heavy and energy sapping for the top two teams in the U14s Premier League.

From the outset, Hornets got on top with their forwards dominating with powerful runs. After going close in the corner, Sean Loftus was sent over with a neat pass from Liam McGovern who also added the conversion for an early 6-0 lead.

At this stage Orrell's main threat, Mark Stephens, was being snuffed out by some superb tackling from David Prescott, and with Jamie Durbin tackling like a demon in midfield they were making little headway.

A superb long pass from Jamie Durbin sent centre Ste Rowlands in at the corner to extend the lead to 10-0 and it looked as if there would be plenty more to come.

But as they have done in the past, Hornets eased up and some very weak tackling by four or five players let in Stephens for an unconverted try which put Orrell back into a game that should have been well beyond them.

So Hornets started the second-half with a 10-4 lead but found themselves under pressure early on and twice having to drop out from under their own posts.

But their defence held out and they then had a spell of pressure themselves, but frustratingly they lost possession on the second tackle three times in a short space of time only yards from the try line. This was a result of trying to play "fancy" rugby in glue pot conditions instead of playing basic sensible stuff.

However, Hornets increased the lead with a Liam McGovern drop-goal, a feat which was repeated five minutes later by Jamie Durbin.

Five minutes from time Ste Rowlands scored his second try. Orrell got an injury time consolation try when Stephens got his second and like his first went through some feeble attempted tackles.

While this win extends Hornets winning run to almost two years, the lads know it was not one of their better performances.

Hornets u7s 36 Golborne u7s 32

BOTH teams produced a feast of rugby in what was a closely contested game from beginning to end.

Golborne took an early lead which was quickly cancelled out by Hornets. The game continued in the same pattern, try for try being scored until Hornets got their noses in front and held on until the final whistle.

Try scorers for Hornets, Ryan Risley (3), Liam Hulme (3), Kyle Ogburn (2) and Daniel O'Brien. Mom, Ryan Risley, top tackler Joe Turner and coach's award, Liam Hulme.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.