The opening round of the U18 Academy League is complete after a week of fixtures across six grounds.
The action began at the weekend, with Wasps’ 55-12 win at Worcester Warriors, Yorkshire Carnegie’s 33-19 effort at home to Newcastle Falcons, and Gloucester’s exciting 34-31 win at Saracens.
We looked back at those opening games earlier in the week, and you can see our roundup here: U18 Academy League opening roundup.
Through the week though the rest of the round was completed, with Bristol hosting Bath on Wednesday, Northampton Saints making the trip to Loughborough Uni to face Leicester Tigers on Thursday, and London Irish hosting Harlequins on Friday.
Bristol won their clash at Bristol Grammar School against Bath, securing a 32-14 score. They started the game on fire, going 19-0 up inside half an hour through two tries from SGS Filton College winger Jack Bates and a third from Redland Green wing, Will Hines.
Bath hit back through Sam Elrick, but a Nathan Camberlain penalty sent the home side into the break 22-7 up.
Hines crossed for his second shortly after the break, and not long after Bates also crossed again, completing a superb hat-trick. Arthur Cordwell grabbed a late consolation from Bath off the bench, but at 32-14, Bristol took home the spoils.
On Thursday Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints shared five tries a piece to Saints scrum half Fin Creighton scored the opener but Tigers hit back through Oakham’s Cameron Jordan. His schoolmate Sam Costelow added the extras and slotted a penalty for a 10-5 lead, but Saints came back through Haileybury star Sam Cappaert, with Creighton converting to nudge the visitors ahead.
Josh Gillespie then flew over for his side’s third score of the half, sending Saints into the break with a 17-10 lead.
Tigers drew level early in the second half though after a score from Bishop Vesey’s Will Poland, but again Saints hit back, this time though Creighton, crossing for his second of the game.
The action was end to end now though, and Tigers were back level again shortly after when Loughborough Grammar scrum half Will Yarnell crossed the whitewash. Tigers then went back to back for the lead when Wyggeston & QEI College flanker Henri Larvin, who was captaining the side, pounced on the ball in the Saints dead ball area.
It was a helter skelter opening fifteen minutes of the second half, and it would carry on like that when again Saints hit back as Freddie Betteridge crossed the whitewash.
Creighton banged over the conversion for 31-31, and with fifteen minutes on the clock it would stay that way to the end.
The final game of the round was the southern conference fixture between Harlequins and London Irish at the Exiles’ training complex, Hazelwood. It was the visitors, Harlequins, that took the spoils with a 43-29 win.
Harlequins were champions last year and beginning with a seven try performance in the opener against a strong London Irish Academy side was impressive. Tries came from St John’s Leatherhead full back Jordan Bond, Cranleigh’s Hugh Tizard and his schoolmate Hayden Hyde, St Paul’s Catholic College’s Caolan Englefield, and Hurstpierpoint College’s James Bourton. Whitgift star Harry Dugmore collected a brace, capping a fine performance.
Has a break until the 5th/6th January, when round 2 will kick off. Sale Sharks and Exeter Chiefs will make the debuts for the year, with Sale hosting Leicester Tigers and Exeter welcoming London Irish to Sandy Park. Northampton Saints and Bristol will have their bye weeks.
U18 Academy League Round 1 Results:
Northern Conference
Leicester Tigers 31-31 Northampton Saints
Worcester Warriors 12-55 Wasps
Yorkshire Carnegie 33-19 Newcastle Falcons
Southern Conference
Bristol 32-14 Bath
London Irish 29-43 Harlequins
Saracens 31-34 Gloucester
Teams:
Bristol
15 Tom Wilstead (Colston’s), 14 Will Hines (Redland Green), 13 Charlie Powell (Bristol GS), 12 Ethan Smith (SGS Filton College), 11 Jack Bates (SGS Filton College), 10 Nathan Chamberlain (SGS Filton College), 9 Ben Roach (SGS Filton College), 1 Charlie Brabham (SGS Filton College), 2 Will Capon (c)(Bristol GS), 3 Nick English, 4 Tom Ford (SGS Filton College), 5 Ned Smith (SGS Filton College), 6 Ethan Organ (Clifton College), 7. Tomi Adgebite (Cabot Learning Federation), 8 George Kloska (SGS Filton College).
Replacements: 16 Sean Ihegie (Cabot Learning Federation), 17 Jay Burley (SGS Filton College), 18 George Brazier (Clifton College), 19 Ben Tothill (SGS Filton College), 20 Jake Goodridge (Castle School), 21 Blake Boyland (SGS Filton College), 22 Ioan Lloyd (Clifton College), 23 Quentin Querl (Weston College).
Bath
15 Oli Hobman, 14 Luke Mehson, 13 Will Butt (c), 12 Max Ojomoh, 11 Oran McNulty, 10 Tom de Glanville, 9 Ben Mead, 1 George Bamsey, 2 Sam Elrick, 3 Si Elrick, 4 Chris Moore, 5 Tom Jeanes, 6 Ayden Chenoweth, 7 Henry Povoas, 8 Nahum Merrigan.
Replacements: 16 Rory Murchison, 17 Arthur Cordwell, 18 Jack Bertinet, 19 Miles Gilbert, 20 Ed Wallrock, 21 Will Cook, 22 Will Hendy, 23 Gabe Hamer-Webb.
Leicester Tigers
15 Freddie Steward (Norwich), 14 Zack Godfrey (Stamford), 13 Andre Dunn (Langley), 12 Sam Wager (Wyggeston & QE College), 11 Will Poland (Bishop Vesey’s GS), 10 Sam Costelow (Oakham), 9 Will Yarnell (Loughborough GS), 1 Keston Lines (Wyggeston & QE College), 2 Jamie Harding (Denstone College), 3 James Whitcombe (Woodhouse Grove), 4 George Martin (Brooksby Melton College), 5 Cameron Jordan (Oakham), 6 Henri Lavin (Wyggeston & QE College) (c), 7 Taylor Gough (Wyggeston & QE College), 8 Thom Smith (Langley).
Replacements: 16 Shaun Allsopp (Stamford), 17 Alex Maxwell (Brooksby Melton College), 18 Joe Latham (Wyggeston & QE College), 19 Xander Purcell (Wyggeston & QE College), 20 Sam Eveleigh (Leicester GS), 21 Jonny Law (Rugby), 22 Ronnie Du Randt (Denstone College), 23 Luke Phoenix (Langley).
Northampton Saints
15 Jake Johnson, 14 Josh Gillespie, 13 Sam Cappaert, 12 Conor Tupai, 11 Ollie Sleightholme, 10 Tyler Mills, 9 Fin Creighton, 1 Fraser Thompson, 2 Samson Ma’asi, 3 Mitchell Brown, 4 Marshall Sykes, 5 Freddie Betteridge, 6 Tom Addison, 7 Joe Wallace (c), 8 Ryan Hussey.
Replacements: 16 Arun Mehta, 17 Elliot Chilvers, 18 Ed McDowell, 19 Kayde Sylvester, 20 Emmanuel Iyogun, 21 Sam Connor, 22 Lewis Evans, 23 Josh Lack.
London Irish
15 Jack Jesty, 14 Dan Stoller, 13 Ciaran McGann, 12 Reuben Knight, 11 Ben Harris, 10 Will Sinfield, 9 Sam Slough, 1 Jamie Henson, 2 Ben Atkins, 3 Brandon Baker, 4 Chunya Munga, 5 Ben Donnell, 6 Josh Smart, 7 Fin Rossiter, 8 Toby Smith.
Replacements: 16 Nathan Langdon, 17 Luke Green, 18 Jack Belcher, 19 Lee Moore, 20 Gwilym Bradley, 21 Gruffydd Williams, 22 Philip Cokanasiga, 23 Takiko Taukei.
Harlequins (from):
Forwards
S Riley (St Georges College, Weybridge), J Salomon (Whitgift), A Salomon (Whitgift), F Baxter (Wellington College), K Sassone (Sevenoaks), P Green (Seaford College), S Davies (Cranleigh), H Tizard (Cranleigh), G Hammond (Whitgift), H Dugmore (Whitgift), H Hyde (Cranleigh), V Everitt (Hartpury College), J Kenningham (Reed’s).
Backs
C Englefield (St Pauls Catholic College), S Jardine (Dulwich College), L Smith (Brighton College), T Allen (Epsom College), J Potter (St John’s, Leatherhead), J Bourton (Hurstpierpoint College), L Anyanwu (Christ’s Hospital), H Barlow (Cranleigh), J Searle (Brighton College), J Bond (St John’s, Leatherhead), L Lynagh (Hampton).
