News
A speedy start from Kirkham GS has fired the Preston school up among the pacesetters in the Daily Mail Schools Trophy after the first month of the season.
The confidence from three good wins will be tested on Saturday when Lancaster RGS, who toppled their local rivals 16-13 last season, meet at Fylde in a warm up fixture to a league game against Loughborough Students.
Brothers Alex and Pat Sanderson plus Richard Wigglesworth all started their rugby careers at Kirkham before moving up the ladder to the full international team.
And the England connection is maintained in the present Kirkham team by Tom Carleton, the son of John, who was a member of the 1980 Grand Slam-winning team.
Carleton junior has so far scored in each of Kirkham’s three games, including a hat-trick in the 53-0 win over Wirral GS.
The full-back also scored one in the wins over St Ambrose (59-7) and Sandbach (51-16). He has been backed up goal-kicking wing Michael Forrest, who scored two tries against St Ambrose, and centre Owain Davies, who bagged two against Wirral.
Head coach Aled Trenhaile hopes Kirkham will maintain their early-season form to post a better return than last season when a good start tailed off and the team only ran up six wins from 13 games.
‘We are enjoying the rugby at the moment and let’s hope it continues,’ he said about a fixture list which gets tougher in this merit table-based competition organised by schoolsrugby.co.uk.
