Beverley Braves under 10s secured a glorious victory over their famous opponents, Siddal ARLFC from West Yorkshire in a belting game at the Beverley Leisure Centre that was full of thrills and spills and went down to the wire with the result in doubt until the final whistle.
Scrum half Cain Robb was undoubtedly the star performer on the day scoring a sublime hat- trick and also kicking a goal for good measure but this was a wonderful team effort from the first minute through to the last, full of courage and guts in defence against a much bigger side whilst teaching them a thing or two about free flowing attacking rugby when in possession of the ball.
After a fairly even start it was the Braves who scored first, Stand-off Charlie Gay put Cain Robb through a gap and into space who then offloaded to the supporting Josh Hamlyn who dived in at the corner to get his sides nose in front.
Both teams then went toe to toe for long periods in a ‘you score one we’ll score one’ scenario with props Owen Miller and Alex Nuttall prominent and Adam Greenwood having the game of his life. In the middle, Shamus Blades, is maturing very nicely at hooker and making all around him look good with ever reliable service from acting half and he also made good yards when scooting away down field himself.
It was in this period when Robb scored his three tries, taking on the Siddal defence with a display of devastating running mixed with a real hunger to keep his team in the game. Inspired, the likes of Isaac Merryweather, Ellis Gaden, Bryan Usher and classy fullback Tom Nuttall poured forward desperate for the victory.
The break came late in the second half when after a wonderful run down the right wing from Josh Hamlyn, lively Will Cohen scored in the corner one play later after the Siddal defence could not reform in time. That set up a tense final few minutes with the Braves behind 26-24.
After great work in defence earning Beverley one last chance and after some good yards made from Alexei Rawlings and Matty Shirley, up stepped Shamus Blades to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat with a clever show and go from acting half to dive under a pile of Siddal bodies to get the ball down, Miller booted the conversion and against all odds the game was won.
The young Braves side are now starting to understand that ‘hard work’ can just about take you anywhere you want to go!
An emotional Coach Craig Collins said afterwards ‘Its not about the size of the dog in the fight as much as the size of the fight in the dog! Well said.
