06/09/2026
📝🏉MATCH REPORT FROM HEAD COACH JOHN GAVIN🏉📝
Aspull RFC 40 – Wigan RU 12
What a turnaround a year makes.
This time last season, we were staring down the barrel of a very similar scoreline. Yesterday, the roles were completely reversed.
We know Wigan were missing a few players, but let’s not take anything away from our performance. We had a few big game players missing ourselves. The difference wasn’t simply the personnel, it was the confidence, belief and swagger that Aspull played with from the first whistle.
There was still 30 to 40% left in that second half tank, and that’s something that would have more than made up for the players Wigan had missing.
The defence was aggressive, physical and relentless. We hunted in packs, won collisions and made Wigan work for every yard.
And when we got the ball, the backline at times purred with the efficiency of a Formula One car. Quick hands, good lines, great support and a willingness to move the ball with real intent.
Joe Knight, playing in his new wing role, was excellent. A hat trick on the back of some beautiful handling through midfield tells its own story. The man who can seemingly play pretty much every position once again showed his class with a superb performance.
Harley Lewis was a real thorn in Wigan’s side. The young hotstepper laid on four tries for his teammates whilst scoring two himself. A revelation coming into the line, Harley went through the Wigan defence time and time again like a hot knife through butter.
The engine room deserves huge credit too. They handled Wigan’s bigger pack with aggressive defensive stints that simply never gave an inch.
Pack leader Alan Martin capped off what has been his best pre season by taking Man of the Match honours. The diminutive tighthead never stopped for 80 minutes and was a huge force on both sides of the ball, putting in arguably his best performance in an Aspull shirt.
Tigre and Zeno Coultas never stopped working, while Mike Farrimond was fantastic during his no nonsense 60 minute stint.
Graham Johnson picked up a yellow card for not rolling away midway through the second half, but even that didn’t deter him from putting in another trademark all action performance.
Liam “Ledley King” West signed a new five year deal with the club yesterday, stating that missing pre season will give him a good few more years on the pitch! The old stager certainly showed up yesterday, putting in a solid 80 minute performance.
And speaking of old stagers, puppet master Rhodri Carlton Jones, ably assisted by Liam Reeve, conducted the lads through some fantastic phases of play. Their vision and ex*****on in midfield put our outside men, Molyneux, Fagan, Knight and Lewis, into acres of space time and time again.
New scrum half Henry Ryder added a completely different dimension to Aspull. His pace off the mark continually asked questions of the bigger Wigan pack and gave us another attacking threat around the fringes.
We aren’t getting ahead of ourselves. Three defeats to the old rivals last season certainly stung, so we’re allowed to crow a little bit about yesterday’s emphatic win. I’m sure Scotty and Fletch will get their boys up to scratch for what’s going to be a very tough league this season, and we wish them all the best for it.
After what has been a very tough but extremely well attended pre season, it was fantastic to finally see everything coming together on the pitch. The hard work, the fitness, the combinations and the belief all seemed to click into place.
A year ago, this fixture was a reminder of how far we had to go.
Yesterday, it was a reminder of how far we’ve come.
We’ll enjoy this one, because we’ve earned the right to.
Then it’s straight back to work.
Still plenty more to come from this group.
