St Helens U18 42 Leeds Rhinos U18 24

Despite showing plenty of spirit with 15 players available by full time, Leeds Rhinos Under-18s lost out 42-24 at the hands of St Helens Under-18s.

The young Rhinos arrived at the Totally Wicked Stadium with a number of players sidelined through injury and a hectic first half saw Saints run out to a four try lead. Early pressure tipped the game in the home side’s favour and despite losing Leon Cowen to injury, a wide move straight after the stoppage saw Dayon Sambou release England Academy international Owen Dagnall to score the opener.

Tries number two and three came shortly after as the Academy league leaders quickly established their lead. Harvey Braddish broke through the tackle of Harrison Gilmore and Jack Purtell to go in under the posts, before a high kick from George Whitby was judged to go back off Rhinos centre Jack Smith and Jonny Vaughan was there to stretch out and get pressure on the ball.

After the Rhinos lost Ashton Robinson through injury, Dagnall added a fourth try for the home side before Leeds began to respond. Errors and penalties from Saints piggy-backed Leeds downfield and as Ben Littlewood ran a nice line back across the defence, the back rower found Declan Ementon, who had a straightforward finish under the posts.

Braddish tried to respond for St Helens but Leeds had began to grow into the arm-wrestle; Littlewood the second Rhinos try with a straightforward drive for the line.

To round off the half, Fergus McCormack showed off his trademark footwork to score a brilliant solo effort to make the score 22-18 at half time; Jack Smith converted all three of Leeds’ tries.

For all their efforts at the end of the first half, a disappointing start to the second half saw the home side run away with the game.

From reclaiming their own kick off, Louie Roberts squeezed through a hole to open up a ten point margin on the score board, and Ben Will also added his name to the growing list of scorers as he took Harry Robertson’s ball over the top to finish in the corner.

Leeds looked to provide a response to the Saints pressure and came closest when Riley Lumb tried to burrow his way to the try line, only for desperate defence to stop the centre short. Off the back of it, Cole Marsh’s score extended the lead to twenty points, and Dagnall’s hat trick try all but sealed the win for the Saints.

Littlewood added his second try of the game with an inspired run to close the score line to 42-24, but the sin binning of Lumb for dissent in the dying minutes was the final act of the game; the Rhinos losing out at the Totally Wicked Stadium.