History was made on 15th April when Mancunians fielded a wheelchair rugby league side and played their first game of the season at Leyland.
Taking the court for the first game were Alexander Kaiser, Peter Hurst and coach Dave Abel. We also received some assistance from Leyland, who we’d like to thank for their generosity on the day in loaning players and hosting.
Our captain for the day was Alexander, who greeted the match officials before the game started.
Leyland scored straight from the kick off as Mancunians failed to recover possession and the chasers came through. The conversion made it 6-0 to Leyland.
Solid work from Mancunians helped to force a couple of errors from the hosts but their own mistakes saw Leyland claim the ball back and go up court to score.
Confidence grew as the half wore on, but once again the speed of Leyland caught the visitors out and they scored a third try to make it 16-0.
Both Kaiser and Hurst became more involved, driving and passing well with Kaiser putting in a variety of last tackle kicks.
Despite best efforts Leyland scored two further tries to make it 26-0. Mancunians fought back well to run in a try before half-time, working a little space down the tight side for one of our Leyland loanees to score. Dave Abel missed the conversion but the scoreboard was now ticking.
Trailing 26-4 at half-time, Mancunians regrouped for the second half and worked really hard to restrict their hosts to just one try. In response Dave Abel regathered a kick for Mancunians second try. Sadly for Peter Hurst, he was unable to convert and the game finished in a 30-8 defeat.
Both Alexander and Peter played well with Leyland deciding that Kaiser was their man-of-the-match.
Mancunians 