A young St.Helens team secured a memorable victory over the British Army 1st XIII at the Honourable Artillery Company in London to win The Capital Challenge 2025!
As part of a showcase of the sport of Rugby League in the nation’s Capital, the Saints travelled down to face the Army, followed by a formal fundraising Charity Dinner in the evening for two wonderful causes; the MND Association and the Royal British Legion.
Reserves Head Coach Ian Talbot had a sprinkling of our young First Team players to call upon in his selection, with Leon Cowen leading out the team as captain for the day.
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It did not take the Saints long to get on the scoresheet with winger Elliot Jamieson finishing off some scruffy passing out to the left three minutes in. Ultimately, it did not matter as he got the ball down well for the opening try. Half-back Kian McGann was tasked with kicking duties, and his first attempt was one of only two misses he would register in the match, 0-4.
The Army were limited in their attacking opportunities in the opening stages and the Saints ran the ball far more slicker to create chances. Half Tom Humphreys finished off an attack to the left, beating a few opposition defenders to go under the posts, 0-10 with 11 minutes gone.
Ten minutes following our second try, our third came thanks to some strong work in the middle. Alfie Sinclair loved the physical challenge against some fellow big men and got the Army team on the back foot, and a quick pick up and go from the play of the ball by Ciaran Nolan allowed him to throw a setup score for Harvey Braddish to go under the sticks, 0-16.
Running in back-to-back scores showed the Saints’ dominance heading into the backend of the first half. Sinclair now full of confidence threw out a great offload to Cole Marsh, he passed out to Humphreys and then Nolan in support got it back on the inside. A classy rugby league score, 0-22 following McGann’s third conversion of the day.
The Army did not helping themselves with repeat penalties close to the half-hour mark, gifting Saints territory. Forward Alfie Tate took on the ball close to the line and engaged a couple of defenders before twisting over to score, 0-28.
Two more tries for Saints came with Matty Penketh scoring with a flourish in the left corner, finishing off some sharp passing play. Humphreys then made it a brace of scores, fending off some tired defence to force himself over the line. A strong 0-40 scoreline for our visiting Saints at the HAC then at the break.
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Into the second half, and St.Helens’ dominance looked to continue with an early four-pointer by Penketh. From the first set of the second period the Army made an error and straight from the scrum the centre cruised in. McGann missed the kick, it would be his final missed conversion attempt, 0-44.
Over the next twenty or so minutes, the Army team looked to make the game more physical, with much stronger defence, and our youngsters were also coughing up a few errors to assist them too.
After a scrappy arm-wrestle the Saints had the Army back once more, with repeated penalty offences seeing referee Tara Jones sit a man down for ten minutes in the sin bin. However, the Army kept St.Helens out and then went on the attack.
Around the hour mark a six-again gave the hosts some rare attacking momentum which Saints did initially well to scramble onto. On the last a high cross-field kick was knocked on by St.Helens and the Army’s left winger James Amachree took it to the corner for an unconverted try, 4-44.
A little wake up call for Ian Talbot’s team, and Billy Keeley got the Saints back doing what they wanted with a strong fend close to the line to get our ninth try of the game with less than fifteen minutes to go, 4-50.
Nolan grabbed his second after Oliver Garmston threatened the Army’s right edge and getting a brilliant offload away to McGann who fed the ball to Ciaran in support – the start of a purple attacking patch. Marsh then got himself on the scoresheet too with a drive and burrow close to the line, again off the back of impressive work from Garmston, who got our third quick score shortly after Marsh’s. Oliver made the Army’s repeat penalties pay and fended off two men to get a deserved try, and Kian McGann converted all three score for a 4-68 scoreline going into the closing minutes.
As the clock ticked down to the final moments more penalties created more easy metres for the Saints. McGann got the ball close to the Army’s line and rather than pass or kick it he chose to dummy and run and go over himself. He would add his eleventh conversion of the afternoon before the full time whistle was blown.
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An impressive St.Helens victory in The Capital Challenge 2025, in what was a dominant performance over the British Army First XIII.
Match Summary
Saints team: Reilly Cosgrove, Joel Kigannaon, Oliver Garmston, Matthew Penketh, Elliot Jamieson, Tom Humphreys, Kian McGann, Alfie Sinclair, Ciaran Nolan, Leon Cowen, Jake Davies, Harvey Braddish and Cole Marsh
Interchanges: Reece Robinson, Matthew Evans, Alfie Tate, Billy Keeley
18th & 19th players: Oliver Stankevitch and Luke Brighouse
Tries: Jamieson (3), Humphreys (11, 36), Braddish (20), Nolan (23, 67), Tate (27), Penketh (31, 42), Keeley (64), Marsh (70), Garmston (72), McGann (79)
Conversions: McGann 11/13
HT: 0-40
FT: 4-74
You can view the Army’s lineup on this post below:
🔊🔊TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT 🔊🔊
The @ArmyRugbyLeague 1Head Coach Cpl @leighrents has named his side to face the young guns of the @Saints1890 Academy
It’s the Capital Challenge at the @HAC_TheCompany Honourable Artillery Company
Kick off is TOMORROW 2:00
Congratulations all! pic.twitter.com/jRWKhhgFac
— Army Rugby League (@ArmyRugbyLeague) January 28, 2025