York Acorn U14s 4 v Stanley Rangers U14s 44
YJL Challenge Cup semi final
21.03.10

Stanley Rangers U14’s travelled to York Acorn and produced a convincing display running in eight tries to progress to the final of the Yorkshire League Challenge Cup. 

The teams appeared to be evenly matched after the early encounters, but sustained pressure from Stanley in both attack and defence forced the breakthrough after York knocked on.  From the resulting scrum Tom Mulhern made good yards and a quick play the ball allowed Will Carlos to exploit the space and open the scores, Jordan Howden converted for a 0-6 lead.

During the initial phase of the game Acorn looked dangerous with the ball in hand but the Stanley defence was on song and effectively contained the home side.  York were forced to spread the ball and Jordan Walker intercepted a loose pass, the game continued to be played at a high tempo and the York defence were able to prevent two good try scoring opportunities with both Tyler Kaye and Will Carlos being denied short of the try line.  Jordan Howden spun the ball wide to Tom Mulhern who made a basketball pass over the defender  to put Connor Ballinger through for Stanley’s second try.  Jordan Howden added the conversion to extend the lead to 0-12.

Stanley were beginning to dominate York in all areas of the pitch and Connor Ballinger marked his return to the side after a prolonged absence due to injury with a strong running game, making a dent in the York defensive line.  York were penalised and Charlie Ledger and the back line showed sensational passing skills to get the ball wide.  Will Carlos ran a great line to cut through the York defence and Tom Mulhern was on his shoulder to beat the remaining defenders and score ten metres from the posts and extended the lead to 0-16.

It was beginning to look like one way traffic and from the re-start Vinnie Cross used his aggression to shrug off the York defence and run the length of the pitch for a what would have been an excellent score, but he fell 2 metres short and the scores remained 0-16 at the interval.  Unlucky Vinnie.

Acorn showed that they were still a threat as the second half got under way and after two powerful tackles from Tom Mulhern the referee awarded the home side a penalty.  Acorn attacked down the wing and scored a well deserved try to reduce the deficit to 4-16.

Jordan Howden sent the re-start deep into Acorns territory and Connor Ballinger and Liam Green gave an excellent chase and put in three big tackles to pin York back on their line.  Again Acorn were forced to spin the ball out wide in their own 20 and Jordan Howden intercepted the wayward pass and made a direct run for the try line but was held up short.  Stanley chose the direct route but Vinnie Cross and Matty Burman were also held up short of the try line.  Jordan Howden intelligently changed the angle of the attack and passed the ball along the back line to give Tom Mulhern space to dance through the defence and score his second try of the game for a 4-20 lead.

Liam Green fielded the re-start and put Vinnie Cross through who this time made it to the half way line.  Matty Burman took up the charge and showed good pace to run the other half of the pitch to score under the posts, Jordan Howden converted to extend the lead to 4-26.  Stanley were now scoring at will and Jordan Walker made his second interception of the game to run the ball back into Acorn’s half, Tyler Kaye finished the raid and added four points while Jordan Howden converted to extend the lead to  4-32.

Vinnie Cross added his own try with Jordan Howden converting for a 4-38 lead.  With 2 York players dismissed, Connor Ballinger exploited the added space at the re-start and set off on a mazy run to take the ball sixty metres up field and finished this penetrating run with a brilliant pass to Liam Green who sprinted clear for Stanley’s last try of the game, Jordan Howden stepped up one more time to add a further two points completing an all round excellent 4-44 point team performance.