The Boys’ at St Benedict’s Catholic High School in Whitehaven have had an impressive week, with two teams reaching County Cup Finals.
The Year 8 and the Year 10 rugby league teams both played Dowdales School in Dalton in Furness last week.
The Year 8 team were triumphant and were crowned champions after an impressive 36 – 16 win.
The St Benedict’s team started really well with a third minute try by prop Tom McKinney, which was duly converted by Harley Nelson. This set them up well to dominate the rest of the half with further tries scored by Harley Nelson and Miller Dalton, both again converted by Nelson, giving them an 18-0 lead at half time.
Dowdales School staged a mini comeback early on in the second half, scoring two tries in five minutes. This was short lived when Fletcher Holgate got a try, converted by again by Harley Nelson.
Two more tries by Tom McKinney, again both converted by Harley Nelson, who also kicked a penalty goal in between put the game beyond Dowdales, who scored in the last 2 minutes of the game.
Mr Harrison, PE Teacher commented: “It was an excellent performance by the Year 8 boys, with Harley Nelson, Miller Dalton and Zac Benson- Lester playing well. But with a hat trick of tries, Tom McKinney was awarded Man of the Match.”
Unfortunately, the Year 10 team were narrowly beaten on the day 24 – 26. This game was played straight after the Year 8 final.
St Benedict’s took an early lead when captain Harvie Hill forced his way over for a try. Dowdales School replied soon after, scoring a try that was converted to give them a lead of 6 – 4. Another score by Dowdales put them in front 10 – 4 at the midpoint of the half.
St Benedict’s finished the first half with tries by Harvie Hill again, followed by Luke Spivey and Kyle Bayliff. But with only one conversion, the half time score finished 18 – 10 to St Benedict’s.
The second half started well for St Benedict’s with Harvie Hill scoring again to give him a hat trick of tries, converted by Sam Fulton, which give them a 16-point lead.
Dowdales came back strongly, scoring three tries and converting two of them to win the game in the last minute.
Mr Harrison said: “The boys can take a lot of credit from this game; they stood up to a lot of adversity and with certain decisions going against them late on. Harvie Hill thoroughly deserved the Man of the Match award.”
