Wakefield College 28-12 Leeds City College
This had the making of a great game with both Wakefield College and Leeds City College going into the contest on the back of some outstanding performances.
The fireworks went off in the first minute when Leeds’s aggressive front row forward Joe McGechean burst through the Wakefield line with his first touch of the ball and fended off a number of defenders to score a sensational 80 metre try, Jordan Rivers kicking the conversion.
In an increasingly tense affair, both teams made a number of uncharacteristic errors with unyielding defense dominating. Leeds City College broke the deadlock with a try after 20 minutes when Leeds Rhinos Academy hooker Luke Teasdale spotted a gap on the blind side and linked up with second rower Xavirier Martin who tipped the ball on for his centre Douglas Foster to burrow over. Rivers again added the conversion.
Nearing half time Wakefield rallied and after Leeds had defended their fourth set on their own line, home centre Tom Rogers managed to get over for their first try to make it 12-4 at the break
.
The second half was another battle of the defenses with both packs working over time. Wakefield managed to score the first try of the half when stand-off Scott Talbot scooted in from close range. And Chad Moss converted.
Leeds made a number of half breaks through Brad Cox, Jordan Anderson and captain Dwaine McRae but were unable to turn them into points. Their frustration was added to when Teasdale had a try disallowed when it looked like he had barged his way over from close range.
Wakefield took control of the game in the final 10 minutes, with four unanswered touchdowns through Harry Carter and Jamie Crowther with a brace each, Moss converting one.
Leeds City College Man of the Match went impressive front row forward Joe McGechean who was a handful for the opposition throughout.
Leeds City College coach Jonny Wainhouse commented, “The score line does not reflect the game, we clocked off in the final 10 minutes and Wakefield lifted their game. Full credit to Wakefield, they deserved the result but we made it difficult for them today and I am extremely proud of the boys. We have come a long way as a team and to come to the reigning champion’s back yard and scare them gives our boys a tremendous amount of confidence.”
Leeds City College Team:
1 Ashton Waterhouse
2 Jordan River
3 Douglas Foster
4 Raftal Bashir
5 Issac Usman
6 Will Milner
7 Jordan Anderson
8 Brad Cox
9 Luke Teasdale
10 Joe McGechean
11 Declan Tomlinson
12 Xavirier Martin
13 Dwaine McRae (c)
14 Daniel Wheatley
15 Joe Baker
16 Tom Logan
17 Callum Northfield
18 Tom Conway