Sat 4 Oct 2025
WPRFC v Widnes
4th October 2025 – Park suffer defeat at home
WPRFC 10 – 33 Widnes
This week Park welcomed Widnes to Stade de Burrows Hill for the fourth game of the season on a windy October afternoon.
Widnes started the game and immediately put Park under pressure and Park had to work hard to get field position, but unforced errors put us under pressure and Widnes struck first on 6 minutes with a converted try following a missed tackle in the back line (0-7). Park restarted the game and put Widnes under pressure and through a couple of forwards phases the ball came out through the hands with strong carries from Will Du Randt and Eli Fakailoatonga who broke two tackles and off loaded to Robin Lowndes who passed to Teddie McCaffrey who dived in the corner with a great finish on 8 minutes (5-7). Park had a period of possession but could not break the Widnes defence and Widnes used their kicking game to pin Park back. Both sides had possession and territory over the next 18 minutes but neither could put points on the board. Widnes got another breakthrough on 26 minutes following a scrum five metres out and on the second attempt they scored an unconverted try (5-12). 3 minutes later Widnes were in again following some scrappy play from Park and Widnes went wide quickly and beat us on the outside to score in the corner (5-19). The final points of the half came on 33 minutes when Widnes fielded their own kick in midfield, took the tackle, and recycled quickly to the winger who kicked through in to the Park 22 and the full back raced through and scored a converted try (5-26).
Half time score 5 - 26
The second half got underway, and Park had a mountain to climb if we were going to get back in the game. Widnes on the other hand had a good lead so were content with defending and trying to pick up points through the boot with penalties on 41 and 43 minutes but fortunately for Park Widnes missed the kicks. The following 20 minutes were a tough close game with both sides having possession and territory but not being able to score any points and Park had to chase the game very hard if we were to get anything out of this game. Widnes scored again on 65 minutes with another converted try and take the game away from Park (5-33) following a lineout just inside the Park 10 metre line which they won and took the ball into contact, they recycled quickly through the hands to their fullback who beat the defender and raced through to score. The last points of the game did come from Park when we had some possession in our own half and Jack Williams evaded three tackles and passed to Robin Lowndes who passed to Matt Treacy who passed the ball passed to Will Du Randt who cut inside and broke through with just the fullback to beat and passed to supporting runner Robin Lowndes who drew the fullback and passed back to Will Du Randt who scored our second try which was unconverted (10-33).
It was a frustrating day for Park with the first half performance being well under par and eventually being too big a gap to bridge in the second half.
Final score WPRFC 10 – 33 Widnes
Team: Alex De Keyzer, Riewoldt Teabuge, Lewis Pickering, Will Du Randt, Teddie McCaffery, Jack Williams, Cameron Flanagan, Dan Williams (Captain), Matthew Treacy, Robin Lowndes, Johdell Akua, Anthony Hopley, Conor Lapniewski, Eli Fakailoatonga, Joel Gaidan, Josh Gibbins, Gary Dykes and Jack O’Neill
