Under 20's Rugby - Georgia on their minds

World Rugby has an incredible reputation in using U20 Championship to promote rugby globally and present emerging rugby talent with a shop window. The 2016 event was a significant event for rugby in the North West of England and was held in Manchester. The county boards of the RFU based in the North West are longstanding supporters of age grade rugby and the England Counties. At the close of 2016 it was Lancashire RFU who further innovated with the introduction of the Lancashire Royals and in the run up to the 2017 Junior Championship to be held in Georgia; TalkingRugbyUnion will follow Lancashire U20’s progress.

The Lancashire U20’s kicked off with aa trip to Derbyshire on Sunday 15th January, 2017. The match was being hosted at Chesterfield Panthers RUFC. This is an opportunity to look at Emerging Players that can make an impact at County, Championship and Premiership level. It is a significant opportunity for North West Club players to showcase their talents.

The game ended with the Red Rose County taking the spoils - NLD (Notts/Lincs/Derbys) U20 8 Lancashire U20 57.

They were both impressive and emphatic winners. The home side started well and were first on the scoreboard in under 10 minutes with a penalty. There was a sizeable crowd supporting both teams and from the re-start they enjoyed some strong forward carries by No.8 Hallam Chapman (Sedgley Park & MMU), Matt Garrod (Fylde) and fellow Lock Nick Ashcroft (KGS & Fylde). Chapman had been on top form in National 2 with Sedgley Tigers the week before coming away with the MOTM on his debut. Chapman was to dot down for the opening try, Flyhalf Will Hunt (Preston Grasshoppers) added the extra two points.

Hunt added a penalty on 19 minutes and then a flowing sequence of play allowed the dangerous Lancashire Backs to run and Tom Carleton (KGS & Fylde) finished with aplomb in the corner, Hunt landing an excellent conversion 17-3 to Lancashire with 24 minutes played.

On 30 minutes the Lancashire pack ware increasingly asserting their authority and this facilitated a set miss move in the centres allowing Jake Foster (Fylde) space to run and score a try which went unconverted. At half-time 22-3 to the visitors.

As the second half commenced, the two sides began to empty their benches, and whilst this seemed to have little or no effect on the Lancashire game plan it clearly hindered the hosts who looked disjointed and unable to find any consistency.

Lancashire continued to press and two tries arrived fairly quickly with the Full Back Carleton showing that fast feet and an eye for the try-line seems to be genetic as he raced in for his second try on 47 mins. Great Lancashire rugby names are ever present at county U20’s.

Replacement Flyhalf James Robins (Firwood Waterloo) knocked over the conversion and then added another conversion 3 minutes later when Skipper Ben Gregory (Fylde) touched down after a set-piece Lineout was driven over the NLD line.

After 58 minutes with the Lancashire pack still rampaging around with Ashcroft particularly impressive quick thinking from replacement Scrum Half Andy Hulme (Preston Grasshoppers & Loughborough Uni.) led to Winger Jonathan Roberts (Firwood Waterloo) brushing his opposite number aside to score and again Robins landed the conversion.

NLD came back to register an unconverted try but the “champagne moment” of the game came on 73 minutes when a break in midfield drove deep into the NLD 22, Hooker Tom Egerton (Sale FC) on for Skipper Gregory took the ball some ten metres from the line broke a tackle drew the last two defenders and then popped an outrageous back of hand over the top pass to the waiting Hulme who went under the posts unopposed. With a minute and half left on the clock the Lancashire Forwards again dominant it was fitting the final score of the day came from Back Rower Toby Harrison (Fylde).

Whilst pleased with the performance Head Coach Martin Scott still feels the squad can still do more but he credits the result to some great Team work from all 24 players who got on the pitch. Team Manager Howard Hughes also agreed “The lads kept to the tempo and consistency we expect, even after changing 9 players in the second half we didn’t let up. We now need to carry that forward in to our opening County U20 Shield game with Staffordshire on Sunday 5th February.