THE Saints stayed top of the fledgling U19s competition with a really professional 54-4 display to defeat a much fancied Hull side that had put 60 points on Bradford only last week, writes Graham Henthorne.
Led around the park in imperious fashion by Danny Yates the Saints were much more focussed than at any time so far this season and it showed.
Lewis Galbraith opened the scoring in the tenth minute as the Saints capitalised on a knock on from the visitors on half way. Drives from front row partners James Tilley and Adam Hesketh along with another punishing charge from André Savelio took the Saints close, but on the last quick hands gave the winger a tiny bit of space to tip-toe along the line to score a well taken try.
On the very next set the Saints doubled their lead. Tom Roughley started the move darting blind out of dummy half and setting Savelio free. In turn he fed Mark Percival who took it 20 metres to the full back before passing back inside to the supporting Yates who outpaced the chasers to score.
Tilley butchered a chance to extend the lead on quarter time as he passed to a defender when he could have picked either of his supporting players having broken the line.
This gave the visitors some hope and, coupled with some poor handling, they began a period of pressure in the Saints half. However, that just made the Saints up the ante in defence keeping their line intact.
It was that man Yates who broke the deadlock bringing Savelio on the burst and no-one was going to stop the big second rower from 10 metres out.
Again the Saints scored back to back tries as a peach of a short ball from Brad Ashurst put Connor Dwyer away. He took it to the full back before feeding Corey Lee for the stroll to the posts. Lewis Charnock made it 4 from 4 conversions and the game was over.
Despite the scoreline it hadn’t been the most fluent display and the players were reminded of the need to keep things going and sharpen up.
This they did straight from the off as Connor Dwyer saved Luke Thompson’s blushes by scoring in the left corner. Thompson had made a wonderful break but with men either side he ran straight at the full back bombing a certain try.
Again two tries in two minutes saw the Saints extend their lead still further. Quick hands to the left found Mark Percival cutting back inside on the angle only for the centre to be caught inches short. Dummy half Matty Fozard forced his way over at the play the ball for the Saints sixth try.
Then came the Matty Fleming show as the winger scored a 15 minute hat-trick. Charnock’s chip on the last was gathered by Greg Wilde who put his winger away for the first of three. He intercepted a wayward pass and outpaced the cover to the corner for the second then completed his hat-trick with probably the best of the lot taking Lee’s wide ball before streaking down the line and diving in at the corner.
In between the visitors had scored punishing sloppy play from the Saints.
The final word was left to Galbraith who closed the scoring in almost identical fashion to the way he opened it tip-toeing down the line and diving over.
Although it’s early days this team is growing in confidence and more importantly learning and then putting things into place. Yates and Savelio are the eye catchers but without the hard graft of Hesketh, Tilley, Ashurst and the ever improving Tommy Holland they are nothing. Bring on the Bulls on Thursday evening at Odsal.
Match Summary:
Saints U19s:
Tries: Corey Lee, Lewis Galbraith 2, Matty Fleming 3, Danny Yates, André Savelio, Matty Fozard, Connor Dwyer.
Goals: Lewis Charnock 7.
Hull FC U19s:
Tries: Tom Stark.
Half Time: 24-0
Full Time: 54-4
Teams:
Saints:
1. Corey Lee; 2. Matty Fleming, 3. Mark Percival, 4. Greg Wilde, 20. Lewis Galbraith; 6. Lewis Charnock, 18. Danny Yates; 8. James Tilley, 9. Tom Roughley, 15. Adam Hesketh, 11. Luke Thompson, 12. André Savelio, 13. Alex Clare.
Subs: 10. Brad Ashurst, 14. Matty Fozard, 17. Connor Dwyer, 19. Tommy Holland.
Hull:
1. Josh Nicklin; 2. Tom Stark, 3. Matthew Liggins, 4. Jack Logan, 5. Ash Leaming; 6. Jordan Abdul, 7. Richard Wilkinson; 8. Ryan Wilson, 9. James Cunningham, 10. Zach Braham, 11. Alex Starling, 12. Jansin Turgut, 13. Andrew Ward.
Subs: 14. Jack Humprhies, 15. Ryan Smith, 16. Bobby Tyson-Wilson, 17. Jack Downs.