Yarnbury U9s in Central Yorkshire Cup

Yarnbury travelled to Wetherby for the Central Yorkshire Cup. Typically for the biggest challenge of the season we only had an 11 man squad, our smallest of the season. The blues had drawn Moortown, Aireborough, Morley and Otley in their qualifying group, all teams who had beaten the boys this season.

The boys rose to the challenge in the first game against Moortown and established a 2-0 lead through 2 Jamie Baker tries, both created from good clearing and quick ball. The boys let the lead slip however and Moortown levelled at 2-2 with only one play left. Luckily the ball went to Jamie Baker from the restart and he left 4 defenders flailing as he sprinted down the touchline to win the game 3-2.

The second game against Aireborough went in a similar fashion; the boys established a 2-0 lead by half time, with more quick ball from the breakdown to release Jamie Baker to score both tries. Yarnbury were in control until the last minute when they decided to pass the ball around behind their own line and were caught. From the resulting scrum Aireborough dived over. With only seconds left, skipper Oscar kept the ball tight and although we were turned over, Aireborough knocked on in the process to leave us with a 2-1 win.

The Yarnbury boys took the field for the third game in a completely different mood, probably due to the tough game they had the week before against the Morley boys. They found themselves 3-0 down at half time due to poor tackling against a big strong side. In fairness the boys came out fighting in the second half and only conceded 1 try and should have scored themselves.

The boys had to beat Otley in the final game to qualify for the semi-finals and the effort could not be faulted. They put themselves in the way of the steamroller Otley pack with several of the boys coming off injured to the point we had no subs left. The boys were only 1-0 down at half time and in the game, but the boys tired in the second half and let 3 further tries in to lose 4-0.

Yarnbury completed 63 tackles, Jamie Baker led the way with 16, but good counts also came from Jack Briggs, Matty Hoy and James Longhawn. With the boys playing 4 games we awarded 2 MOMs – Jamie Baker for some sensational tries and brilliant cover tackles and Oscar Andrews for some great captaincy despite the Otley ref telling him to shut up and putting himself in the middle of everything no matter how big the opposition.

The boys can be proud of finishing 3rd of 5 in this tough group and I know we have said it before but it is a pleasure to be involved with these boys and a special mention has to go to the parents as well for the constant encouragement they show the boys and support for Charlie and me in Steve’s absence.

It is Leos away next week and Steve is back to lead the boys and hopefully we will have a full squad. One final note, now Charlie is in full swing with this referee lark, I think we may need a whip round to buy him one of those lime green or pink referee shirts to go with his Acme Thunderer whistle.