On a hot day down at Saltaugh Road and in front of a bumper crowd, Holderness Vikings U14s took on Myton Warriors in the quarter-final of the Dennis Butler Challenge Cup.
Hoping for a strong start after two very tough matches, the Vikings unfortunately seemed
off the pace in the first 10 minutes with some uncharacteristic errors and a subdued nature to their defence.
As a result, Myton took a deserved lead through a simple scrum play, releasing an outside back to race under the sticks and go 6-0 up.
It was possibly the shock the Vikings needed as they improved their defence and energy somewhat before putting a nice play together to create some space for Logan, who backed himself to beat two defenders and score in the corner, the conversion striking the post from Jack.
The Vikings followed up with a second, following some strong runs by Sonny and Max CD getting us into the Myton half before Matty R ran a great line to beat three defenders and score under the sticks, Jack converting.
The Vikings moved further in front when a quick PTB and scoot from Tye enabled a quick break by Jack, who fed Josh with a timely pass, and his pace outran the defenders to score, Jack converted. From the kick-off, the Vikings returned the ball through a strong carry from Dylan, making 30m, offloading to a rampaging Jimbo who made another 20m before again offloading to Brogan who raced under the sticks to put the scores at 22-6 for HT.
The second half was a tighter affair, with the two teams trading sets before, after about 10 minutes, Jack attacked the line with purpose to score and convert his own try.
The next score came from Myton as a quick PTB meant the dummy half could scoot, and with a poor defensive read, they were able to exploit the space left and deservedly ran in to narrow the deficit, converted.
Again, the two teams traded sets and, as happened throughout the game, the Vikings weren’t quite as fluid with ball in hand as they had been in recent weeks. However, they did manage to cross the line again with Riley H finishing off an attacking play on the left edge assisted by Harvey C, Jack converted.
The Vikings go into the draw for the semi-finals but will need a much more composed performance to progress to a potential final spot.
