Oh we do love a cup game at St Francis and with the words of Steve Hand in the changing room echoing in our ears (“I need another double this year lads”), we knew we needed to deliver.

Only a couple of minutes were on the board when Alex cut through, only for a fantastic cover tackle to deny him a try in the corner. However a minute later, the birthday boy himself Rylan dotted down to ease any pre-match jitters. Chris then scythed his way through to touch down in the corner, quickly followed by the gravy train running a short line (via a brilliant hand-off and break from coach Wretham). Not done yet, the Halifax express dotted down a couple minutes later and then much to the crowds delight, Jack Veaney crossed the whitewash. Jack then turned to Nat on the sidelines and uttered the sensual words “that one was for you babe”, in recognition that this was his first competitive try for the club. Just before the half time mark, Callum left defenders clutching at blades of grass (I do believe this was down to the camouflage tape being worn) to dive under the posts.

Half Time: 36-0

We had to wait a full six minutes for the next try after half time with young Mr Knight scoring in the corner. With the pitch now becoming more and more boggy, this made the game a little more stop, start. There were a lot of scrums where both teams seemed to have success at different points (well from what I could tell at full back anyway which lets be honest, isn’t much). A lovely break down the left from a slow tap and go (yes you read that right) where Alex was going to kick to the corner, tapped it for Dave to run across the pitch and give it to Josh and then Lewis who was tackled a couple of meters short, only for Ryan Crawley to leap over the ensuing ruck to score in the corner. Frannies pressed forward with impact subs like Ollie, Al and Josh Rolfe making a positive impact and it was the latter who bundled his way over from short range to extend the lead. The next 15 minutes saw more scrums and general scrappiness from both sides as the pitch was turned further and further into a Tough Mudder course. Another impact sub in Sam (who had been hollering for some time now that he wanted to touch the ball) was the next to score and with just over 2 minutes to go, we thought that was that. A big lesson was learnt here and a couple of switch off moments saw Hellingly score. Bigger games are on the horizon and we know that moving forward, we need to be switched on for the full 80. However, with that being said, this shouldn’t overshadow what was a fantastic team effort this was. Now onto a 2025 Semi we march!

Final Score: 56-5

Man of the Match - Rylan
Dick of the Day - Josh Wretham
Honourable Mention - Jack Veaney