Whilst this was nominally a Brothers Seniors team the number of regulars making up the backroom highlighted the strength in depth of the current RNRL squad with many players making their RNRL debut.

The early rain had cleared over Wigan however with no breeze and thick cloud conditions were very humid and hot as the teams took to the excellent St Pats pitch. As alluded to above the 20 strong squad featured 8 players on debut, all of whom gave a great account of themselves, notably Sean McKervail who bagged 4 try’s on the day

The St Pats team were a mixture of youngsters and senior players making up a newly formed 2nd Team and looked ready for the battle during the warm up. Kicking off to start the game the home side were gifted possession from a spilled ball and were in a good position some 25 m from the RN line. Great defence by the Brothers initially kept Pats at bay but spurred on by the early advantage they made good ground and were rewarded with a well worked try out on their left which was brilliantly converted to give the home side a 6:0 lead after barely 5 minutes of play. The next 10 minutes saw the Brothers regroup and settle into the game with the opening Brothers score coming from great work in midfield by the forwards before Charlie Mattison took a well-timed pass to skip through the home defence touching down right of the posts. Ben Connor struck his first conversion of the day and it was all square at 6:6. Pats were giving as good a they got and pressed for another of their own however a spilled ball fell at the feet of skipper Ben Taylor who gathered the ball and slipped a pass inside to Sean McKervail who took on the defence to race 70m to the line giving Connor a straight forward conversion, 6:12 after 25 minutes. This sparked a period of total domination by the Brothers leading up to the halftime break. McKervail struck twice more on the back of excellent defence by the Brothers and with Connor nailing the conversions the score board was rattling along in favour of the brothers 6:24 approaching the break. The final action of the half was another spectacular score for the Brothers, another debutant Alfie Mitchell broke clear of the Pats defence in his own half and scorched through tat least 40 m before he was half tackled, a clever flick pass, almost from ground level, found the supporting Ben Connor who grounded the ball for the try and with another conversion, his 5th of the half, he put his side 6:30 to the good at the break.

5 minutes into the second half another spectacular try put the Brothers further ahead, Luke Baird broke from his own half and pushed through a beautifully weighted kick which bounced perfectly for him as he moved through the Pats defence, hooker Tyler Leighton had following up in support took the well weighted pass to finish off the move giving Ben Connor his 6th conversion, brilliant stuff 6:36. Whilst RNRL were scoring freely the St Patricks side still threatened and actually crossed the line but only for the try to be chalked off, the ball adjudged to have been knocked on. After being provider for the last score Baird turned scorer himself with another incredible solo effort. Taking the ball in his own 22 he skinned the entire Pats defence to go the length of the field touching down under the posts, Connor nailing his 7th conversion of the match 6:42. The one-way traffic continued for the Brothers, another debutant Gwydion Jenkins rounding off another great move starting in midfield and finished off out wide, for the first time in the match Connor was wide with the conversion but the score edged the Brothers closer to the 50 points mark at 6.46. That point was reached soon after, Tyler Leighton had moved from hooker out to the right wing ran in his second of the day out wide so with the conversion missing it was 6:50. Leightons hat trick score came soon after another right wing move looked to have stalled with Leighton appearing to have been stopped but he twisted in the tackle and found the space to touch down again. 6:54. To round off the RN scoring Sean McKervail linked up with vice-Captain and scrum half James Tilley scoring under the posts for his 4th try on debut, Tilley himself put over the conversion for his sides final score 6:60. Some consolation for the home side came in the form of a consolation try at the base of the posts and with that the game ended, the Brothers triumphant 12:60. This was just the game Coach Bamford was looking for to mix the debutants with the more established players as Septembers Inter Services gets ever closer.

McKervail’s haul of 4 try’s throughout the match earned him the MoM for his side although he came runner up in the traditional St Pats pint of beer ‘chugging’ challenge in the clubhouse post match!

A special mention for our Ref today, Aussie Dean Tyler only arrived in Wigan on Wednesday after a 35-hour journey from Australia, his TJ's however had shorter journeys from Leigh, thanks Gents!

One benefit of playing ‘up north’ is that it allows family and friends to see the lads in action, so thank you for turning out today great to see. Also, it was great to see our former Chairman Nick Stenhouse pitch side again after a relatively short journey over the Pennines from Huddersfield.

Congratulations then to the players and backroom on a great win which should inspire the Academy and Wrenegades in their fixtures on 27th and 28th July respectively.