St Helens Town Cup Finals

On 16^th and 17^th June the Year 8 and Year 9 Rugby League teams competed in the St Helens Town Cup Finals.

Year 9 v Rainford

On a hot and sunny evening the Year 9 Rugby team arrived at Langtree Stadium ready to face Rainford High for the Town Cup. With Haydock being given the Home team dressing room spirits were high, the team completed a solid and focussed warm up and lined up in the tunnel ready to head to the field. Haydock started the stronger of the two teams scoring an early try, unfortunately for Rainford this would be a theme for the rest of the game. After the first quarter of the game Haydock had built a healthy lead but showed real class by not taking a positive result for granted. With a bare 13 the Haydock High team showed excellent levels of fitness and determination to hold out some strong attacking play from the opposition. Eventually Rainford managed to break our solid defence to claim a deserved try. After a well worked short kick off Haydock regained position and for the rest of the game possession, and scoring was heavily weighted in Haydock’s favour. As the final whistle blew the scoreboard recorded a healthy 58-6 win. All that was left was to lift the cup. Captain Brandon Scully, who also was awarded the man of the match award held aloft the spoils of a good evenings work, which if anything was a well-earned reward for a year of hard work and effort.

Year 8 v De La Salle

In stark contrast to the previous evenings game the Year 8’s match was played in constant rain and wind which although hindered both teams still allowed for a thrilling game of Rugby League. Arriving at Thatto Heath Rugby Club, in the rain was not what was expected for the Year 8 Rugby League final held in mid June. After a short and sharp warm up the Year 8 Rugby team took to the field against a strong De La Salle outfit. Unfortunately mistakes made by Haydock led to 24 unanswered plays of the ball by De La Salle and only strong defence stopped an early score. Being under pressure for such a long period led to a predictable try for De La Salle. The first half was marred by numerous handling mistakes which in turn led to a stop, start game. Eventually Haydock found their feet and produced a period of strong play leading to a converted try just before half time. The half time team talk consisted of ‘hold the ball in two hands’ and ‘run into gaps’ which had been missing in the first half. With the team under no illusions of the areas they needed to focus on they started to second half. Like the half before the second period of play was disrupted by handling error and penalties, mainly on Haydock’s part and it was only a matter of time that De La Salle was able to play attacking rugby within Haydock’s defensive 20. Eventually De La Salle scored a second try to take the lead 8-6, Haydock tried to fight back but again unforced errors led to the loss of possession. The final whistle blew with De La Salle running out winners in what was a closely fought contest, between two evenly matched teams. Ultimately it was unforced errors that led to Haydock’s defeat as their grit and determination were never in question!