This victory brings the two sides level on matches won at 2 apiece with the Brodie Lee Shield returning to Portsmouth for another year. Despite the result the Ince Club proved once again to be great hosts throughout the afternoon with both clubs determined to maintain the close links formed over the years. Three of the Brothers on the day are dual registered with Ince, Brodie Lee Butler, Matt Gaskell and Danny Dainty who lined up with an RNRL team containing another four players making the senior debuts. On the day Sean Houghton took the skippers role at full back leading the team in the absence of Ben Taylor. George Hannan started at No 8 for his 3rd outing of the season and celebrated with a brace of tries.

The game got off to the best possible start for the Brothers, after barely 4 minutes the ball was shipped out to the RN right and a final pass by Gav Duffy put Danny Dainty in at the corner. A similar move the brought the next score, this time Duffy at centre touched down for the 4 pointer so. The frantic start to the game saw another try for the Brothers soon afterwards, this one for 2nd row James Teixeira, however the missed conversions saw the Brothers ahead only by 12-0. The home side responded to this early onslaught pushing the RN back into their own half with some good pressure which was rewarded when Jack Morrison scored the try converted by Ben Cottrill 12:6. The try fest continued as the Brothers took advantage of possession from the touch finding kick off setting George Hannan up to go over under the posts for his maiden try in RN colours, hooker Eli Steinberg getting the conversion 18-6. Steinberg then forced himself over from a play the ball close to the posts and with his own conversion it was 24-6. The home side kept their heads up and pressed for another score of their own only to knock on close to the RN line, the loose ball was gathered by skipper Houghton who sprinted at least 90 yards beating the desperate Ince defence touching down to stretch the RN lead even further to 28-6. Again, Ince responded and were rewarded with a score out on the RN right which was well converted by Cotterill 28-12. There was just time in the half for the Brothers to strike again with Jack Broxton scoring his maiden try which Houghton converted sending his team in at the half time break 34-12 to the good.

The Brothers continued in the second half where they left off, early scores for Charlie Mattison, his maiden try, and another for George Hannan saw the RNRL go out to a 42-12 lead. Moving into the last quarter of the game prop Jack Ray got himself on the scoreboard rounding off a move from 25 yards out, again no conversion but the Brothers were now closing on the 50 point mark at 46-18. Yet again Ince came back at the Brothers scoring a well worked try on their left and with anther conversion for Cottrill Ince moved on to 18 points. However, it was the visitors who had the last word, Joey Sugden gathered a loose ball and beat the Ince cover from 60 yards out for the try which skipper Houghton converted. Finally, to round off a great team performance home town boy Danny Dainty scored his second of the day and with another conversion for Sean Houghton it was 58-18 to the Brothers.

Although the Ince team were without several 1st team regulars RNRL Coach Darren Bamford was pleased overall with his team’s performance coming off the back of the heavy Challenge Cup defeat earlier in the month.

As expected, the battles on the field were left there as both teams enjoyed the post-match in the Ince Rose Club House climaxing in the award of the man of the Man Of The Match Cup. The MoM cup itself is a unique trophy highlighting the strength of the RL family as it was donated by Mrs Janet Dainty grandma to Danny Dainty and is only used for this fixture. Sadly Janet is no longer with us but she will be remembered by both clubs every time this fixture is played. For the record the Ince MoM nomination was for try scorer Jack Morrison and for RNRL it was skipper Sean Houghton for his efforts on return to the side. The overall award of MoM went to Sean Houghton following a ‘drink off’ to decide the winner this after a dead heat first time round!

A good day all round with the match giving an opportunity for new players to stake a claim for 1st team action as well as giving northern based families, former Brothers and friends a chance to see the lads in action.

Thank you ‘the Bridge’ and we look forward to seeing you next year!