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Academy Fall Short
St Helens Academy 24 v 30 Bradford Bulls Academy
By Steve Sexton, Team Manager
Bradford came with the intention of wining and their big pack hit Saints hard with two tries coming in the first four minutes.
Both tries were converted and at 12-0 things did not look good for Saints.
Lee Gaskell played well looking like the only Saints player who could break Bradford’s defence and his patience and efforts were rewarded on about 25 minutes with a good try converted by Scott Clarke to make it a six point game.
Saints were now playing some better rugby but were dogged by simple mistakes and managed to knock on three times on the first tackle keeping Bradford in the game. Not long afterwards Saints’ backs put Tom Makinson over for a good try on the right hand side of the field.
Bradford replied, against the run of play, with a typical prop forward barge over try near the posts in the dying minutes of the half easily converted and giving them an 18-10 advantage on the whistle. Saints 75 per cent completion rate was better than Bradford’s but too many of the mistakes made were early in the tackle count and gifted Bradford with good possession near to Saints line.
Saints came out to win in the second half and forced an early drop out capitalising with some nice football which saw Josh Jones score out wide followed by a sloppy Bradford penalty off their next set punished by a good try from Tom Makinson converted by Scott Clarke.
At 20-18 Saints had gained the advantage and looked to be in the ascendancy with Bradford’s completion rate dropping to 50 per cent but then they won a drop out off the restart and they scored a converted try to take the lead back.
Saints then had a good period of play getting a penalty and forcing a drop out and scoring a try in the corner from Josh Jones to make it 24 all.
A poor kick on the last gave Bradford a breakaway which they scored from despite an excellent cover tackle from Scott Clarke.
The Saints defence was just not organised enough to cope with the Bradford follow up from the original break away and the core was 30-24 with 15 minutes to go. Saints played the game out well completing six of the last seven sets and forcing one drop out but they did not manage to break the Bradford defence again.
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St Helens Academy
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Bradford Bulls Academy
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Saints Academy:
Tries: Tom Makinson 2, Dave Pike, Josh Jones, Lee Gaskell.
Goals: Scott Clarke 2.
Bradford Bulls Academy:
Tries: Rob Hawthorne, Danny Addy , Tom Lillycrap, Tom Burgess, Tom Olbison.
Goals: Joe Wardle 5.
Half Time: 10-18
Full Time: 24-20
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