Saints » News

Harlequins Gillette Rugby League Academy 12 v 70 St Helens Gillette Rugby League Academy

By Graham Henthorne, Team Manager

In the leafy environs of St Mary’s College Twickenham, a youthful Saints Rugby League Academy side taught the Quins Academy a lesson in ruthlessness and hard nosed professionalism.

This fourteen try demolition of their opponents was not as prolific as the earlier win had been but was no less emphatic having been achieved in their own back yard where many an opposition has struggled this year.

The Saints were 20 points up within the first quarter of an hour as Matty Ashurst showed exactly why he will be touring Australia in a few weeks time. He repeatedly broke the line creating two tries for Jamie Ellis and one for Tom Armstrong before Gary Wheeler got in on the act. It was his break from half way that set up Tommy Johnson whose interpassing with Ellis and then Sean Magennis set up Jamie Foster in the corner.

Again Wheeler pierced the home line from deep in Saints territory. He took it to the beleaguered full back then passed it to the right for Scott Clarke to score the first of his brace.

The home side began to get a foothold with the introduction of their big substitute prop and some complacency in the Saints defence let them in for two converted tries.

That was to be it, however, as the Saints scored again to re-establish their dominance. The ball was worked left to Ben Karalius whose peach of a pass put Matty Ashurst through another yawning gap. It was his pass to the supporting Carl Forster that allowed the big second row to score on debut. This was fitting reward for a very impressive display of strong running and sound tackling.

The second half was one way traffic as the Saints scored eight more tries.

From the first set Ellis put Forster through and an impressive hand off allowed him to feed Tom Armstrong for his second.

Gary Wheeler then showed consummate skill with the boot. First his cross kick from the right touchline on half way to the left corner was plucked out of thin air by Martin Waring for a glorious try. Then his kick from the left wing to the right touchline was batted back by Scott Clarke into the hands of Jamie Foster. Both kicks were with the backing of a strong wind but judged to perfection.

On the hour Langtree and Forster drove deep in to Quins territory before Matty Ashurst’s last act of the game was to put Wheeler under the sticks.

There followed a little fracas in which the Harlequins sub was dismissed as much for entering the field of play without permission as for entering into several altercations with numerous Saints players.

Saints made a belated rush to finish at a point a minute with three late tries in the final ten minutes.

Tom Armstrong completed his hat trick collecting Sean Magennis’ overhead pass to score in the corner.

Ben Karalius bamboozled the defence darting in from dummy half after Magennis, Ellis and Karl Ashall had made ground.

The final hurrah belonged to Jamie Ellis completing his hat trick going 50 metres under the sticks after Magennis had again unlocked the defence.

The shock of the game was the uncharacteristic 50 per cent success rate of Jamie Foster’s normally ultra-reliable boot, although a stray elbow to the throat in the first half may have had something to do with that.

As could be seen in the later game, the Quins Academy had had to cope with numerous call-ups to the Reserves and First Team squads but this should in no way detract from the performance put in by the Saints. Two debutants off the bench (Forster and John Jenkins) and many of the more fringe players involved from the start meant that this was an equally young and inexperienced Saints side who simply outclassed their opposition.

The usual suspects of Ashurst, Magennis, Wheeler and Ellis were outstanding but were given the space to play in a Man of the Match performance by hooker Karl Ashall.

Harlequins Junior Academy	St Helens Junior Academy
Sam Grondin	Tommy Johnson
Billy Driver	Scott Clarke
Darren Reed	Tom Armstrong
Jamie Cottle	Jamie Foster
Sam Yates	Martin Waring
Joe Ridley	Gary Wheeler
Sam Bolger	Jamie Ellis
Olsi Krasniqi	Stephen Lucas
Tom Sadler	Karl Ashall
Louis Robinson	Mark Murray
Max Edwards	Matty Ashurst
George Archer	Danny Langtree
Tony Gigot	Sean Magennis
Ziad Saeed	Ben Karalius
Clark Squires	John Jenkins
Rob Thomas	Rob Murphy
Tim Menzies	Carl Forster