It was a sombre occasion, on Saturday, as the rugby community came together to honour the life and passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. As flags flew at half mast, an impeccable and poignant minutes silence was held before play got underway.

Wigan welcomed De La Salle to Douglas Valley, looking to bounce back from last week’s opening day defeat away to Heaton Moor.

For the opening half hour, the game was evenly matched with most of the play taking place in the middle of the park. Both teams created opportunities but failed to find the final pass on numerous occasions.

It was the away side who broke the deadlock with a good move down the right-hand side, with the ball finally sticking to hand the De La Salle wing went over in the corner on 35 minutes.

De La Salle had some ascendancy for the remainder of the first half and managed to add a penalty before the half time whistle blew to take the scores to 0-8.

Following the resumption of play, De La Salle took advantage of a well place 50/22 kick to give them possession deep in Wigan territory. Sustained pressure broke the Wigan line, and the visitors went over for their second try of the game, which was duly converted. 0-15.

Wigan regained some composure and after a good spell managed to get the ball moving fluidly. Danny Stenburg was on hand to finish a fine move down the right flank; however, he was fouled after grounding the ball which resulted in a penalty try being awarded and the offending player being sent to the sin bin. 7-15

De La Salle added a further penalty and looked to have taken the game beyond reach.

With just 5 minutes left to play, Wigan worked into good position and a rolling maul made ground before hooker, Tom Hill, peeled off to score and give the Douglas Valley faithful some hope.

It was sadly not to be, Wigan missed the conversion and failed to add further score, so a good game finished 12-18 to De La Salle.

Wigan travel to Tyldesley next Saturday 17th September, for what should be a competitive local derby.