Yorkshire 22 Lancashire 20: match report
A 20 point deficit for Yorkshire following a 38-18 defeat a week earlier at the Woodlands was never likely to put them off a sustained assault on Lancashire in the 2nd leg of this Bill Beaumont County Championship at Hull Ionians ground. And so it proved.
The White Roses county raced away with two tries in the first 15 minutes, with centre Greg Minikin and scrum-half Noah Cowan touching down. A successful penalty kick by Lancashire captain Chris Johnson left the score at 12-3.
Winger Leo Gilliland has been in a rich vein of late season scoring form both for Fylde and Lancashire. He finished off a smart move before the interval with a neat try and Johnson added the extras to reduce the deficit to 12-10.
Back came Yorkshire with their powerful left winger James Norman benefiting from a neat pass by Minikin and extending the lead with a try before half-time.
The teams went to the changing rooms with the home side up by 17-10. Could they mount a sustained attack on the Lancashire line to get back within striking distance whilst still 13 points behind on aggregate scores?
Gilliland made this more difficult when in the 42nd minute he scored a fine try acrobatically in the corner. 17-15.
The switchback pattern of the game continued in the 49th minute when Yorkshire fly-half James Watts finished off a period of pressure on the Lancashire line by touching down. It was proving a taxing afternoon for goalkicking and once again the extra two points were spurned but a 22-15 lead gave some hope to the home side. This was underlined when a few minutes later Johnson was sent to the bin for what was judged as a deliberate knock-on.
The 14 men representing the Red Rose county really had to knuckle down to defy Yorkshire’s attacking ambitions. They did it with great fortitude and didn’t suffer any more setbacks with some heroic defence.
Johnson returned for the closing minutes and finished the tie off in the best way by benefiting from no 8 Tom Ailes’ break near the Yorkshire try line in the 77th minute and scoring in the left corner. If his attempted conversion had succeeded than it would have drawn this second leg of the contest. It drifted wide but Lancashire celebrated nonetheless as the final whistle blew and they had earnt their place in the Final at the Allianz/Twickenham Stadium to face either holders Kent or Cornwall on June 6th. Final Score on the day: Yorkshire 22 Lancashire 20.
Lancashire Head Coach Alex Loney said: “We’re really excited to get back to a Twickenham Final. Both teams showed how much they wanted to get there. It was a really tight game and a fine advert for the County Championship.”
YORKSHIRE: Hinchcliffe; Viner, Dobson, Minikin, Norman; Watts, Cowan; Mitchell, Stephenson, Bairstow, Makin (c), Harrison, Hastie, Hyde, Brankley. Reps: Archer, Wand, Dalby, Dodds, Henshall, Keith, Manderfield, Harriott-Brown.
LANCASHIRE: Freeman; Dorrington, Forster, Clayton, Gilliland; Johnson, Sturgess; Bowker, Ellam, Rylance, Garrod, WaltonB, Deans, Kassam-Sharples, Ailes. Reps: Deeks, Kyle-Clay, Birchall, WaltonM, Fairclough, Rawlings, Williams, Bradley.
