FIELDING yet another young side with three more debutants, the Saints overwhelmed the full strength black and whites at Langtree 62-20 on Saturday.
Although the second half wasn’t as dominant as the first the Saints were in control from the first whistle.
And that was literally from the first whistle as Olly Davies scored the first of his brace after only 9½ seconds! The visitor’s full back was under Lewis Charnock’s high kick off but spilled it when he heard the thunderous charge of Luke Thompson and Co charging at him. It fell straight into Davies’ hands and he stepped his way over for probably the quickest try Langtree has seen.
Fresh from his first taste of Super League action André Savelio extended Saints lead imperiously pushing off would be tacklers to score in the corner. This after the visitors had knocked on Charnock’s high bomb on the last to give the Saints an attacking scrum.
The fragility of the Hull back three was shown again as they failed to deal with another high bomb, this time letting it bounce. The loose ball was stabbed clear by Jake Spedding and then grubbered on three time by Lewis Galbraith before he picked up to score in the corner.
The Saints scored their fourth in this blistering 15 minute spell as first Thompson and then Savelio drove the ball in, the latter again scattering defenders to score.
Still scoring at over a point a minute the Saints made the game safe with their fifth try. Galbraith tapped a high kick back into the hands of Spedding and the big centre showed a clean pair of heels to the cover as he rounded the kick chase then went 80 metres down the wing for the try.
The visitors finally managed to capitalise on some Saints errors opening their account with an overlap try in the right corner but not before Dave Eccleston had produced a fine try saving tackle to hold the centre up over the line.
Luke Thompson scored a well deserved try charging onto a pass 20 metres out before the visitors completed the scoring in the first period again scoring out wide but again only after more try saving heroics this time from Olly Davies.
The second half turned into a bit of a you score/we score situation with both sides trading tries but in the Saints favour three to two.
Davies scored his second sprinting up in support of Dave Hewitt and outpacing the cover from 30 metres. Hewitt had earlier been put through by a great offload from Savelio.
Jonah Cunningham scored on his debut diving over from a play the ball close to the line after great drives from Thompson and Davies and Hewitt secured his first jinking his way over untouched after Savelio and Phil Atherton had been stopped short.
The Saints handling dropped off dramatically in the final 20 minutes as they managed to only complete three sets, scoring from two of them.
Another impressive display off the bench from Ross McAuley saw the big prop offload to Hewitt who put Tom Calland away for another debut try as the prop outpaced the cover.
The 11th and last try of the afternoon saw Hewitt again benefit from doing what every good half back should do, namely support his forwards. This time the offload came from Joe Ryan to Lewis Charnock who took it to the full back before feeding Hewitt to go the last 50.
Although this was a comprehensive victory over a good Hull side there is still a lot of improvement before the big one next Wednesday.
Thompson and Savelio led the way but they had good support from the ever improving Atherton and McCauley off the bench. The half backs worked well with Hewitt finally looking as if he’s finding his feet at this level.
Match Summary:
Saints U19s:
Tries: Jake Spedding, Lewis Galbraith, Dave Hewitt 2, Tom Calland, Luke Thompson, Olly Davies 2, André Savelio 2, Jonah Cunningham.
Goals: Lewis Charnock 9.
Hull FC U19s:
Tries: Ash Leaming, Callum Lancaster, Zach Braham, Jack Downs.
Goals: Reece Dean 2.
Half Time: 32-10
Full Time: 62-20
Teams:
Saints:
1. Lewis Charnock; 2. David Eccleston, 4. Matty Fleming, 3. Jake Spedding, 5. Lewis Galbraith; 6. Lewis Fairhurst, 7. Dave Hewitt; 13. Tom Calland, 9. Matty Fozard, 15. Luke Thompson, 11. Olly Davies, 12. André Savelio, 8. Joe Ryan.
Subs: 10. Phil Atherton, 14. Jonah Cunningham, 16. Lewis Hatton, 17. Ross McCauley.
Hull FC:
1. Josh Nicklin; 2. Ash Leaming, 3. Connor Bower, 4. Callum Smith, 5. Callum Lancaster; 6. Harry Tyson-Wilson, 7. Reece Dean;8. Charlie Johnson, 9. Alex Sheperdson, 10. Zach Braham, 11. Jansin Turgut, 12. Jack Downs, 13. Brad Fash.
Subs: 14. Josh Wood, 15. Ryan Smith, 16. Jordan Abdull, 17. Ross Osbourne.
