Northampton Saints U18 suffered their second defeat of the PREM Next Gen Season away at Newcastle Red Bulls.
Tries from Charlie Hammick, Elijah Jeyes, Sonny Goode and Charlie Tamani weren’t enough to secure a result away in the freezing cold north of England.
Reflecting on the result, Head Coach Charlie Reed said: “It was a tough result. I think we were beaten by a better side on the day.
“I thought Newcastle came out firing with a good game plan, and executed it really well.
“From our side, we were just second to everything in the game, which is something we’ll need to address.”
First-half:
Less than two minutes were on the clock before Saints won a penalty at the breakdown, which Goode kicked to the corner, and Hammick broke free from the resulting rolling maul to dot the ball down for an early try.
The hosts responded almost immediately after sustained phases inside the Saints 22.
Both sides were evenly matched, but one area Saints had the upper hand was at scrum time, and they turned Newcastle’s ball over from their own feed inside the host’s half, leading to a counterattack attack and Jeyes broke the line for the finish.
But once again Newcastle shot back shortly after for their second try from turnover ball inside the Saints red zone, which the Red Bulls capitalised.
Newcastle added a third following a nice break from the winger inside his own half, followed by another from a grubber in behind the Saints defensive line to take he lead to 16 points at the break.
Second-Half:
Saints were denied an early scoring opportunity early in the second period after George Tonga’uiha was held up over the line.
But the hosts were the ones to strike first in the second period as they worked into the 22 and went over from close range once more.
Saints managed to pull one back following a lovely break from Will Hepher, which opened up the space to put Goode through to dive under the posts.
But the Red Bulls made the most of errors from Saints, who gave away an intercept, allowing the winger to walk it in.
Saints still had fight left in them, evidenced by a classic finish by Tamani down the far touchline, but Newcastle would see the game out with one more before the final whistle, crashing over yet again from close range.
Line-Ups:
Newcastle Red Bulls U18: 15 Charlie Dinneen, 14 Alfie Warwick,13 Oliver Ashton, 12 Oliver Green, 11 Jonny Douglas, 10 Ted Fletcher, 9 Joe Syson; 1 Sonny Hopper, 2 Jack Nesbitt, 3 Mason Proudlock, 4 Joe Browell, 5 Adam Rocks, 6 Sam Parks, 7 Charlie Evans, 8 Jonathan Broadbent.
Replacements: 16 Will Graham, 17 Josh Doran, 18 Myles Alder, 19 Dom Henderson, 20 Ben Jewsbury, 21 Josh Dickson, 22 Ajay Edwards, 23 Alex Dickie.
Northampton Saints U18: 15 Fin Shields, 14 Elijah Jeyes, 13 Will Catley, 12 Ashton Cox, 11 Charlie Tamani, 10 Sonny Goode (c), 9 Caelin Chin; 1 Aiden Reid, 2 Ferdi Barnett-Vincent, 3 Noah Buxton, 4 Rafferty Hewitt, 5 George Tonga’uiha, 6 Ronan Perkins, 7 Will Hepeher, 8 Charlie Hammick.
Replacements: 16 Charlie Utting, 17 Lucas Veevers, 19 Ted Warner, 20 Reuben Williams, 21 Harry Sturla, 23 Will Howes.
Newcastle Red Bulls U17 26-31 Northampton Saints U17
Immediately following the PREM Next Gen league fixture was a friendly between Newcastle and Saints U17 sides, which saw Saints emerge with a 26-31 victory courtesy of tries from Ben Jones, Tommy Karpanos, Benji Patterson, Alfie Mutuma and Josh Miller.