This weekend the U7s, U8s and U9s made a successful visit to the Rossendale Festival.
The U7s entered 3 teams and came away from their first tournament winning the Bowl final and coming runners-up in the Shield in their age group. The U8s entered 2 teams both losing narrowly to Littleborough teams to finish runners-up in the Cup and Plate competitions. The U9s came away from the Festival winning the Shield competition, despite finding it tough in their group, the team persevered and came away with some silverware!
The U9s had a busy weekend, fielding a side to play Kirkham GS on Saturday in a very good contest, winning 3 out of 4 quarters, and then on Sunday fielding a Fireflies side at home to Fleetwood coming out on top again over 4 quarters – a good weekend all round for the U9s.
The Under 12s had a comfortable win at home to Fleetwood. This was achieved from the foundation of a good team effort and handling skills. Hoppers always looked dangerous when they moved the ball away from the scrum or breakdown.
For the Junior teams, Sunday saw the opening games in the Blacksticks Blue Junior Challenge Cup.
The U13s in their first 15-a-side cup game eased to a 30-0 home win against Ashton Under Lyne. Meanwhile the U13s Fireflies also had a home win, 37-0 over Ormskirk showing strength in depth for the U13s.
The U14s lost 31-17 away at Manchester in a very good game of rugby, much tighter than the scoreline suggests. Hoppers were leading 8-5 at half-time and the score was tight until 2 late tries by Manchester settled the game. Credit to the boys who competed well against a strong Manchester side.
The U15s won 30-0 away at Liverpool St Helens in a physical encounter, strong defence from Hoppers kept LSH out, while excellent handling from the backs led to some good tries including a hat-trick for Walter.
The U16s came away from Waterloo with a 17-17 draw in a fiercely contested match, on balance the result was just about right, neither side deserving to lose.
