Kells Under-16s have battled their way to a place in the in the Lancashire Cup final.
They had a very close win over Leigh East Under-16s thanks to two early tries and them some outstanding defending as the game drew to a close.
It took just two minutes for Kells to get on the score sheet when Evan Pears reacted quickest to dive on a perfectly weighted Noah Doran kick with the try converted by Rhys Williamson for 6-0.
Just six minutes later Kells were over again when Ashton Hetherington sliced through the Leigh defence before passing to Doran to finish under the sticks with the try again converted by Williamson for a 12-0 lead.
It never looked enough, and the very good Leigh East side battled their way back into the game marshalled by their Man of the Match Fin Twiss with two well worked tries, both converted, to level the scores at 12-12.
In the blazing sunshine and intense heat these were two well matched teams, and the battle ebbed and flowed with some massive tackles from both sides, and even reduced to 12 men with a sin binning in the second half, East Leigh looked impressive and put pressure on Kells who had to scramble and put in a number of blocks on their own try line.
In reply Kells, led by the outstanding Archie Robinson, launched a number of return attacks to put pressure on the Leigh try line.
Both defences held, and it looked like a stalemate, but three minutes from time Kells Man of the Match Doran saw the chance and kicked an impressive drop goal for 13-12.
From the restart Leigh threw everything at Kells, and in the dying seconds secured a penalty out on the wing, and the chance to win, but the kick drifted just wide, the final whistle blew and Kells were into the Lancashire Cup final.
