Bradford Bulls U18s 0 Leeds Rhinos U18s 54

A one-sided affair at Bartercard Odsal Stadium saw Leeds Rhinos Under-18s score ten tries in a 54-0 triumph over Bradford Bulls Under-18s.

The unbeaten Rhinos got off to an excellent start with a try inside the opening five minutes. Tom Richardson looked to have found the line as the young winger found himself in space racing for the try line, but desperate defence from the home side prevented him from finding the ground with the ball. Nevertheless, Leeds persisted and gort their rewards when Brennan Townend forced his way to the line to get his first Academy try to give the away side the lead.

Bradford tried to respond as Mason Peach found space but couldn’t get a clean offload away. Harrison Lazenby kept the attack alive but Ellis Singer’s poor last tackle kick went out on the full.

Leeds on the other hand continued to take their chances as Sonny Hetherington set up Wade White for a score under the posts as the visitors kept growing their advantage. Seth Marchant converted to make the score 12-0 after 20 minutes.

In a half that was dominated by Leeds, the Bulls had flurries of chances; Will Eyre making a clean break but the full back couldn’t get up to speed and Marchant produced a wonderful tackle to prevent a certain try. It was the best opportunity of the half for the home side, who’s progress was marred by errors and mistakes that Leeds capitalised from.

A knock on by Will Simpson led to Hetherington scoring directly from the scrum play as the centre carried three players over the line with him, before a penalty for a high tackle from the restart pushed Leeds downfield again. After testing the Bulls’ defensive resolve with a driving run from Evan Jones, Kai Irvine stepped back against the grain to find the line for a fourth Leeds try.

The scoring wasn’t over as a try on the half time whistle gave the young Rhinos an unassailable lead at the break. A seven-tackle set conceded by the Bulls put them immediately on the back foot as White carried out strongly for Leeds.  Great work from Hetherington too helped position the Rhinos in range of the try line and Jones did well to barrel his way over to make the half time score 28-0.

The Rhinos started the second half in the same way as they ended the first period as two tries in quick succession took the game beyond the home side. Jack Mears bounced out of dummy half to scores his first Academy try to kickstart the scoring again, and Jacob Toola also got amongst the scorers as he managed to reel in a flailing offload from White to promote the ball over the line.

Now 38 points ahead, Leeds maintained a strong defensive structure to deny the Bulls chances at points themselves. After White was judged to knock a high kick into Micah Charles, the Rhinos endured back-to-back sets on their own try line well as the Bulls couldn’t find any solutions to finding their way over.

Tinkler notched the Leeds lead to 44 points as the game passed the hour mark, before Tooala was unlucky not to score a second of the game as he couldn’t hold onto the ball over the line. Substitute Noah Lunn was also close as his pass ricochetted off the chest of Wilkinson before landing at the hooker’s feet before he could collect it.

Fittingly, Tinkler’s second of the game brought up the half century as the prop crashed over from short range. Finding themselves conceding a goal line drop out after good play on the last tackle from Leeds, the Bulls couldn’t match their opponents’ physicality as Smith came up short of the line before Lunn’s pass was timed to perfection to put Tinkler into a hole to touch down.

There was time for White to grab a second try of the game for the full back too to complete a comprehensive 54-0 final score for the Rhinos.

Teams

Bulls

1. William Eyre, 23. Micah Charles, 3. Will Simpson, 4. Zack Clayton, 5. Harrison Goldthorpe, 6. Ellis Singer, 7. Archie Wright, 8. Harrison Lazenby, 9. Dylan Garbett, 10. Dylan Hodgson, 11. Josh Huby, 12. Dylan Keenan, 13. Mason Peach

Subs: 14. Jack Ingham, 18. Joe Gill, 16. Josh Hill, 17. Marley Williams (18^th Man – 15. James Hirst)

Rhinos

1. Wade White, 2. Tom Richardson, 3. Sonny Hetherington, 4. Jacob Tooala, 5. Bailey Hardy, 6. Seth Marchant, 7. Kai Irvine, 8. Hughie Tinkler, 9. Harvey Butterworth, 10. Robin Smith, 11. Cobi Ellis, 12. Will Wilkinson, 13. Brennan Townend

Subs: 14. Jack Mears, 15. Ryan Hosier, 16. Evan Jones, 17. Connor Lawrie (18^th Man – Noah Lunn)

Tries: Townend (5), White (19, 79), Hetherington (28), Irvine (32), Jones (39), Mears (42), Tooala (48), Tinkler (65, 75)

Goals: Marchant 7/10