Wheelchair Reserves beat Rhinos in friendly

• Warriors Reserves beat Leeds Rhinos Reserves in the wheelchair friendly category on Saturday afternoon.
• Toby Burton-Carter crossed for a hat-trick of tries in the 10-try half.
• FT | Wigan Warriors Wheelchair Reserves 52-8 Leeds Rhinos Wheelchair Reserves.

Wigan Warriors Wheelchair Reserves defeated Leeds Rhinos Wheelchair Reserves 52-8 in a curtain-raiser friendly at Robin Park Leisure Center on Saturday afternoon.

Toby Burton-Carter opened the scoring for the reserves with his own converted try. Doubling the score, Mark Williams received a delightful Burton-Carter pass which allowed him to score in the right corner.

A third score came when Tom Welch crashed through two tackles after receiving a short pass from Dan Dutson. Scoring four tries in 15 minutes, Burton-Carter again converted his own try for a 22-0 lead.

With 12 players available, manager Chris Greenhalgh has been able to make wholesale changes and rotate his squad and keep things fresh.

Unlike the experienced Warriors squad, the Leeds players are relatively new to Wheelchair RL but were rewarded for their efforts with a breakaway try midway through the half to make it 22-4.

From here on, it was almost all one-way traffic. Scoring the second, Williams went through the defensive line to score under the posts and give Burton-Carter an easy conversion. Adding another, Burton-Carter completed his hat-trick when the Leeds defense was stretched to leave a huge gap to run through.

Scoring the last try of the half, Dutson was first to react to a loose ball from a Leeds error to score an easy try. After further changes, Billy Ord was assigned the kicking duties but was unable to add to the extras. The half-time score was now 38-4 to Wigan.

The skill in Cherry & White’s lineup is vast, but the partnership between Welch and Dutson blossoms more and more each week. It was this that led to the next try, with a kick from Dutson deep in his own half which was tracked down by Welch to turn it into a brace. With the kick now turned, it was Welch who expertly converted his own try.

Despite being outplayed, the Rhinos had the odd moment to cheer and it was the next score that gave their traveling supporters a reason to do so. Attacking the Wigan line, the ball was skilfully moved through several pairs of hands before being touched in the corner.

Following this moment of joy for the Away team, the Warriors had just one. A similar handling move saw Dutson provide the final pass to debutant Daniel Slobin which allowed him to run to the line and score his first try in Wheelchair Rugby League. Another kicker tried his luck but Dutson was unsuccessful on this occasion which left the score at 48-4 with 10 minutes to play.

Sealing the win, captain Reece Duddle was the final scorer of the afternoon with an excellent try down the right flank. After receiving the ball, Duddle was able to use his chair skills to evade the defender and cross the line to score his first try of the season. As the final whistle blew, the score was 52-8 to the hosts.

Wigan Warriors Reserves: Reece Duddle, Mark Williams, Tom Welch, Toby Burton-Carter, Dan Dutson

Exchanges: Ste Rigby, Leila Hamrang, Billy Ord, Louis Telford, Daniel Slobin, Oliver Steele, Jordan Burns

Try: Burton-Carter (3), Williams (2), Welch (2), Dutson, Slobin, Duddle

Objectives: Burton-Carter (5/6), Ord (0/1), Welch (1/2), Dutson (0/1)

Leeds Rhinos Bookings: Harrison Butler, Finley Butler, Joel Dyer, Charlie Wagstaff, Di Caley, Becci Noble, Lou Harden, Dawn Lennox, Dave Mitch, Ben Coleman

By Stuart Cooke.