The Lancashire Wolverines hosted a more confident Sheffield Predators side than the one they’d faced previously in the season this past weekend, in monsoon conditions at Blackburn RUFC.

The game couldn’t have started better for the home team though, as the defence continued their fine form to immediately shut down the Predators’ offence. Then the Wolverines’ special teams did a fine job yet again this season as Luc Kinder followed some excellent blocking to return the punt to the end zone for the first touchdown of the day.

Again the defence would drive back the Predators’ attempted advances before the special teams unit again excelled, this time blocking the punt away to give the Wolverines the ball on Sheffield’s 7 yard line. The offence duly delivered, running in on their very first play through Daniel Ledward, who grabbed his fourth touchdown of the season. With a 14-0 lead after just one offensive play, the Lancashire team was looking good.

As the rain set in the game became a scrappy affair, with several exchanges of possession. With the rain comes an increased difficulty to pass the ball so a run heavy offence brought short yard situations. The Wolverines managed to tack on a 3-point field goal in the second quarter as Paul Stewart continued his excellent season.

With just 15 seconds left in the half, the Wolverines looked to kill off the game, but Sam Bloomfield, standing in for the injured David Mead at quarterback, threw an interception, which was returned to the house for six Sheffield points. The extra point was good and half time brought a 17-7 lead in favour of Lancashire.

Into the third quarter and the rain set in heavier. Running back Joe Nicholson, in for the injured Chris Littler, erupted, running strong for good yards, often taking one or two Predator players with him. He capped off a fine drive by running it in on fourth down for 6 points.

The rest of the game would turn into a scrappy affair, as neither offence could drive in the heavy conditions, resulting in a final score of Lancashire Wolverines 23-7 Sheffield Predators.

The Wolverines now have two key games, away to the East Kilbride Pirates in just under a fortnight and then away to Tamworth Phoenix, who lead the NFC Premier division over the Wolverines only on head to head record.