The Junior Saints Academy plus the six Senior Academy members eligible to play for the U19s met up on Wednesday to give them three valuable days to train as a squad before the vital clash with local rivals Leicester at Oval Park, which they won 9-20.
Leicester fielded a strong squad of players with plenty of Guinness A League experience, while both teams had one player absent to the England U19s game against Italy on Friday.
Leicester punished some early mistakes and converted two early penalties to make the score line 6-0 after 20 minutes. Scrum-half Danny Pointon led by example as captain all week with his attitude and professionalism. The players responded to falling behind and began to string together some fluid moves with players keeping the ball alive in contact and attacking space, causing Leicester to give away a penalty for slowing the ball down illegally. Pointon slotted the penalty to register the first points of the afternoon.
Just before the break Saints scored from a lineout with a well-taken try by Dan Lavery with a move straight from the training pitch. The full -back was a constant attacking threat and communicated with the back three throughout the match. The half time score line was 6-10.
Straight from the whistle, the Saints players took control with a break from 16-year-old No 8 Rob Milligan, who offloaded in contact throughout the match. Jon Vickers gave a powerful display and dominated the scrums at loosehead while the lineout provided plenty of ball through locks James Cannon and Phil Hoy.
Hooker Jon Cresswell rounded off a six-phase attack with a try in the corner to open up a nine-point gap. Leicester’s attacks were thwarted by some excellent tackling from U17s centre pairing Nick Greenhalgh and Grant Anderson whose physicality and involvement in the game was very high.
The match was made safe on the hour mark when good defensive pressure created the chance for wing John Brake to sprint clear from 60m. The last 15 minutes saw Leicester score a penalty to close the gap to 9-20.
As the game went into injury time, Leicester made one last attempt to cross the Saints goal line. Saints withstood intense pressure for numerous phases as the Leicester forwards tried to drive their way over. Eventually the pack forced a turnover bringing the final whistle to a very enjoyable game, 9-20 to Saints.
