Catterick Crusaders U12's made the trip to Gateshead Storm on Saturday during the Kings Coronation. It was a lovely morning when the sun decided to make an appearance.
Crusaders turned up strong with 15 players making the trip up the A1.
Gateshead started of strong scoring first within a few mins of kick off but unfortunately didn't make the conversion. Leaving the score 4 mins into the game 4-0.
Catterick gathered around and fought back and forth with Storm for 5 mins before getting themselves on the score board with a great Try from our rugby league newbie Finlay Holmes who after making a break from the half way line decided to convert his try making the score 4-6.
After some hard fought sets of 6 Catterick managed to slip through Storms defences allowing Oliver Pickles to slip over the line scoring our 2nd try of the day and successfully converted the kick.
Storm got together shortly after this and found a chink in Catterick's defences and scored a great try under the posts and successfully converted it. The score now very close coming up to the end of the first half 10-12. Catterick pushed hard up the middle of the field ending a successful and complete set of six ending with Callum Coburn giving the ball a lovely nudge to the right wing which was caught gracefully by Sebastian Pennington-Foster and after a quick side step which ended with him managing to just make it over the try line even with a valiant effort from storms defence. Sebastian attempted to convert his try but unfortunately was unsuccessful leaving the score at half time 10-16 to Catterick.
Catterick gathered themselves during the half time break and after a quick coaches chat from Adam their Captain Cameron Geldard rallied them up for the second half.
Catterick kick off the second half with a lovely deep kick off from Callum leaving Storm in there 10m area. It was 5 mins in the second half before there were any points added to the score board and storm once again seen Catterick stacking in too much on the right and storm took full advantage scoring on the left wing. Unfortunately after a good attempt the ball just fell short of the sticks leaving the score shortly into the second half at 14-16 to Catterick.
Catterick gave a short kick into Storms half where unfortunatly they knocked on during the attempt to catch the ball leaving Catterick in Storm's half with 6 to go.
With a few lovely plays of the ball unfortunately Catterick just couldn't break through a strong Storm defence the ball was turned over. Storm played the ball fast and unfortunatly one of their players just wasn't expecting the ball and knocking into Callum's hands in Storm's try area where he dove for the ground as quickly as possible. Cameron stepped to convert this try successfully leaving the score 14-22 to Catterick with 10 mins to go.
After a quick water break during the kick and chat from their coach Catterick got set to receive again. Storm kicked it deep and chased hard into Catterick's 20m area where we stayed for the next 3 tackles. It was then that the ball was passed fluidly through Catterick hands to Finley Holmes who managed to see a gap and took the opportunity to run 80m of the pitch and finishing under the posts with a great try. Elliot Staerck took the opportunity to test his kicking skills and hit the ball beautifully in the centre of the posts leaving the score with 2 mins left 14-28 to Catterick.
Storm kick off again with a lovey kick which was unfortunatly knocked on by Catterick leaving us defending our 10m area. We put everything we trained into practice holding Storm off until the ball was turned over after a great rip by Steeno Lewavakula. This then lead to the ball being played quickly through a few players of the ball and on the fourth tackle into Moses Suguturaga hands where he broke through Storms line after a few hand offs finishing placing the ball down between the posts. Callum stepped up to convert successfully for the final points of the game. The day ended 14-34 to Catterick.
Everyone played really well on the day and enjoyed just playing some competitive rugby league. Thank you to Gateshead Storm for hosting us and to all the parents for travelling.
Man of the Match was Finlay Holmes