Lancashire beat Yorkshire, head to Twickenham

Lancashire beat Yorkshire 29-14 to book a seventh consecutive appearance at Twickenham to represent the North in the Bill Beaumont Cup.

They got there thanks to three second-half tries from Ryan de la Harpe, Chris Briers and Jordan Dorrington which followed an earlier score in the first half from Dorrington.

Yorkshire kicked off and immediately put Lancashire under pressure, earning a penalty try after 13 minutes when a driving maul was illegally brought down.

Lancashire captain Evan Stewart was shown a yellow card after the incident but Yorkshire could not add to their score during his absence.

In fact, it was Lancashire who scored next when Chris Johnson landed a penalty - having missed an earlier attempt - to make it 7-3.

Lancashire then took the lead for the first time as they neared the break as Dorrington took a pass from Scott Rawlings and raced fully 35 metres to touch down. Steve Collins missed the conversion so Lancashire held a tight 8-7 lead at half-time.

Lancashire opened the game up in the second half and de la Harpe found a gap under the posts to score and leave Collins with a simple conversion.

Yorkshire kept fighting and had an opportunity to score through Joe Barker, although he had put a foot in touch before dotting down.

Then Don Solomi was sent to the sin bin and Lancashire were this time able to use their man one-man advantage to good use, Briers scoring after a Collins offload to put them 22-7 ahead with the conversion.

The try of the game followed as Dorrington collected the ball in his own 22, slipped past the Yorkshire line and into the opposition half. Stewart took his pass and delivered the return for Dorrington to score between the posts.

Collins converted to extend Lancashire's lead and make the score 29-7; although there was no way back for Yorkshire, they did have the last say in terms of the scoring when Lewis Minikin touched down and his score was converted by Joe Bedford.

Lancashire's head coach Mark Nelson said afterwards: "It might have been a bit nip and tuck at half-time, but we came out and played some real quality rugby.

"At half-time we looked at discipline and clearing out rucks so that we had quality ball going forward.

"I don't think we played particularly poorly in the first half, just that certain things didn't stick at crucial times.

"There was more accuracy in the second half, we scored two spectacular tries, and what was good about today was that it was a 22-man effort.

"Everybody contributed significantly to the game today, and we're looking forward to another game against Cornwall in what should be a mother showpiece final."

Captain Evan Stewart spoke about the prospect of playing Cornwall in the final: "It's a team we know very well now, a third time playing them. It's another big challenge, a big step up, so training this week we will have to be spot on.

"The young lads should just enjoy Twickenham because the whole weekend goes in a flash, and hopefully we'll be coming back with the trophy."

"Being captain this season has been massive. Thinking about some of the players that have done it in my time with Lancashire, I've looked up to and revered, and having them still in the team has been awesome. You have Alex Loney, Chris Johnson and Louis McGowan, it's nice to have so many leaders in the team.

"It's been nice to have some young players coming through as well. I taught Jordan Dorrington when he was at Lancaster Royal Grammar School two or three years ago, and to give him the pass for his second try out there was very nice."