Pride in North Yorkshire

The U14s Orange team kicked off their season with a bleary eyed early start to travel down to Catterick Crusaders.

With a long journey seemingly still in their legs at the first whistle, it was Catterick that made the most of the early running, building a 14-0 lead by half time with strong defensive efforts from Dan Glover, Jack Cregan and Adam Snowden ensuring the deficit was not larger.

Huddled together at half time, the players picked themselves up, acknowledging the negatives and highlighting the positives and came out for the second half with far more energy than the first.

Pressure on Catterick eventually paid off, and with a knock on forced, the Rockets poured forward to snatch the ball and score their first try of the morning.

Jack had a storming run down the pitch to set up Dan for his try, before Adam crossed with support from Curtis Easton.

Confidence surging through the team, a good passing move along the line sent Jamie King through for a score with Benji Kinloch converting before Kieran Robins added a crucial try of his own to take the lead.

With only twelve in the team, the efforts of the game started to catch up with the Rockets and Catterick managed to score with four minutes left to level the score.

The crowd fell to a hush as the kicker stepped up for the conversion, which agonisingly sailed through the posts to give the home side a two point advantage they were able to hold onto until the full time whistle leaving the final score at 20-18.

"I am extremely proud of the team" said Coach, Tom Snowden. "Team is exactly the word to sum up their performance. To play how they did with only twelve players after such a long journey is a massive credit to the whole bunch and bodes well for the season."