Harvey Bird
Oliver Brown
Lennon Curr
Bobby Darbyshire
Alex Feather
James Field
Leon Hobson-Sheriff
Ethan Lawrie
Joss McArthur
Jack McHugh
Nico Mori
Josh Pritchard
Thomas Richardson
Jack Rodbourne
Lucas Ryan
Zachary Scott
Luis Spragg
Josh Tenniswood
Keir Welch
Aaron Wilson

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Winners Don’t Always Win!

The early morning start from Keighley, the long coach journey to Hull and the unexpected late kick-off served to inspire a confident Keighley Squad.

However that confidence was somewhat shattered, as despite a balanced first 5 minutes with each side probing away, the Rose Cottage juniors were seemingly undone by conceding 2 quick-fire breakaway tries and a further well worked effort after a huge drive in the next 10 minutes as Hull looked to establish a stranglehold on the match and a rout looked very much on the cards.

However, such is the growing maturity of this U13’s Squad, they did not succumb. With Captain Ethan Lawrie paving the way and leading from the front as usual, every boy responded with 100% effort and they slowly ground their way back into the match, pushing Hull onto the back foot and into sometimes desperate, clear-anywhere defence.

From the restart after the 3rd try was conceded, Lennon Curr’s hanging kick was charged down by Jack McHugh who went to ground inside the Hull 22. From there, the Keighley pack’s endeavour unsettled the much larger Hull unit and after the 3rd phase moving forward, the ball was popped to Bobby Darbyshire who drew his man and flipped the ball to Aaron Wilson in full flight. Wilson made ground up deep inside the Hull 22 then turned inside before off-loading to Leon Hobson-Sheriff who handed off 3 defensive players to power over for the try. The conversion was missed but the Keighley boys had started to believe!
Hull 17 – Keighley 5 – Half Time

The second half was not for the faint hearted and from the re-start, Keighley pressed forward and won almost every ball in midfield, securing turn-over after turn-over as Lawrie, McHugh, Alex Feather and a rejuvenated James Field at second row proceed to batter the rucks with huge tackles. Keir Welch was beginning to spray the ball round from the rucks and scrums with growing confidence and the pressure told when camped on the Hull line, the ball broke free from a ruck to to Rodbourne to bully his way across the line score under the posts. Curr added the extra 2 points from the conversion.
Hull 17 – Keighley 12

However not everything went Keighley’s way now and the huge restart kick into the corner put their defence under huge pressure but having rebuffed the initial surge from Hull, they tried to clear the lines only for McHugh’s clearance kick to fall right for the Hull full back who jinked inside and undermanned Keighley defence to widen the gap once more.
Hull 24 – Keighley 12

The remaining 15 minutes was all Keighley. With a steal just inside the 10m line, Field powered forward and from the ensuing driving maul 5m from the Hull try-line the ball was released to Jack Rodbourne and the powerful forward pushed over for the try. Curr came up short from the left touchline with the conversion attempt.
Hull 24 – Keighley 17

Keighley then peppered the Hull line with drive after drive and with the seconds ticking down their endeavour once more paid off when a well-worked move from midfield and a kick over the top by Curr allowed Hobson-Sheriff once more to show pace and power to touch down in the right hand corner. Distance was again the deciding factor as Curr’s long range conversion effort fell agonisingly short.
Hull 24 – Keighley 22

Such was the determination of the Keighley squad that “last play” lasted a full 4 minutes before Hull were able to bundle the ball into touch to end the match.

Hull 24 – Keighley 22 – FULL TIME
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Coaches Comments
We couldn’t be more proud of the effort, determination and endeavour shown by every single one of the Squad today. Everyone played their part, put into practice what we’d been planning in training and on the day if we had been more aware in the first 15 minutes, the result would have been entirely different. This is probably the Squad’s most complete performance to date despite the result and the best team didn’t win today. The boys wore the Keighley Badge with huge pride!
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GMF - 08/12/13

Match details

Match date

Sun 08 Dec 2013

Kickoff

11:00

Team overview