Playing their first game at under 12 rules, effectively the full rules of rugby league, the 2013 Beverley Braves under 11s were taught a harsh lesson by a fast and mobile Castleford Panthers.
After a strong performance, last time out against East Hull the Braves looked like a completely different team in this Yorkshire Cup first-round game as their defence consistently failed to move up and quash the Panthers attack. As a result, the West Yorkshire side had a field day in attack, with so much space to play they scored five unanswered tries in the first half and were out of sight by half-time at 28nil.
Some individuals did come out of the game with credit man of the math George Bennett-Teare drove the ball up relentlessly whilst Oliver Loney, Henry Hughes and Ethan Rowbotham supported well, with the latter two taking time off the field due to injury. It was out on the flanks that the Braves were mainly caught out and especially on the left were they were regularly short on numbers. On the right Will Wallis and Tom Cohen kept the Cas side under wraps for most of the game.
The second half opened as the first had started with the Panthers scoring straight from the Braves kick off, but unlike the first half the Braves could steady the ship by regaining possession from a short Tom Marr kick off. Finally able to build some pressure on the Castleford line Wallis restored a little pride crashing over from acting half back, converted by Marcus Walker.
Both half backs Walker and Lewis Egan found the going hard with so little possession but made up for it with a lot of work in defence. Joe Dennis tackled and backed up well when he came on for the second half whilst William Kirkup and Dylan English, who both had stints at full-back, were left very exposed by the events happening in front of them.
The second half display was an improvement on the first, George Lees caused the home side some issues whilst Tom Colley provided a sign of the improvement with a good tackle to dislodge the ball and prevent another Panthers try. Ewan Morton and Jack Turner the two newest members of the side coped well when coming on to the pitch, helping to shore up what had been a very leaky defence. Castleford scored two more long range tries before the end to leave the final score a very disappointing.
Final Score: Castleford Panthers 46 Beverley Braves 6
