REPORT | Warriors U18 26-35 Newcastle Falcons U18

BY OLI HIGGS

A late flurry of tries was not enough for Warriors Under 18s to avoid a 35-26 defeat at the hands of Newcastle Falcons Under 18s at Sixways on Saturday afternoon, in the Premiership Rugby Under 18 Academy League.

Falcons went in 21-12 ahead at half-time despite tries for Rob Lester and Will Higgins before the visitors added two more after the break.

And although Josh Olver and Ollie Lawrence secured a try-bonus point, it was too little too late for Warriors, who missed out on reaching Finals Day.

Both sides signalled their intention to attack by turning down early shots at goal in favour of kicking to the corner and it was Warriors’ risk that paid off first when Lester went over in the corner after just four minutes.

It took 15 minutes for Falcons to reply when scrum-half Cameron Kelemeti danced under the posts to score.

Warriors full-back Noah Heward went close to scoring another sensational solo try after picking the ball up on halfway, breaking the line and chasing his own kick, only to be beaten by the covering defence.

The hosts didn’t have to wait long to regain the lead though, as the ball was skilfully worked from the set-piece into midfield and George Bates burst through a tackle before teeing up fellow flanker Higgins under the posts.

In the final ten minutes of the first-half, Warriors missed tackles in the middle of the pitch allowing Jamie Adamson and then Reece Amir to score for Falcons, and Josh Hodge, perfect from the tee all afternoon, sent Newcastle in 21-12 ahead at the halfway stage.

Centre Theo Mainihera made a period of pressure early in the second-half count for Newcastle when he dived over from close range and as Worcester sought to fight back, they were twice let down by the final pass as the game opened up.

But it was Falcons who scored on the counter-attack when Adamson went over for his second, running from his own 22.

Falcons replacement Freddy Lockwood was sin-binned soon after and the Warriors forwards drove over from the resulting lineout as Olver crossed the whitewash.

With five minutes remaining, Lawrence finished off an impressive backs move, cutting the deficit to just nine and Josh Phipps’ second conversion made the score 35-26.

But despite their best efforts, the young Warriors’ campaign came to an end as they couldn’t find any more late answers.

Timeline
04m | Lester try 5-0
14m | Kelemeti try 5-5
15m | Hodge con 5-7
22m | Higgins try 10-7
22m | Leonard con 12-7
27m | Adamson try 12-12
28m | Hodge con 12-14
29m | Amir try 12-19
30m | Hodge con 12-21
42m | Mainihera try 12-26
42m | Hodge con 12-28
53m | Adamson try 12-33
54m | Hodge con 12-35
62m | Olver try 17-35
62m | Phipps con 19-35
65m | Lawrence try 24-35
66m | Phipps con 26-35

Warriors | 15 Noah Heward, 14 Alex Haselock, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Paul Wells, 11 Rob Lester, 10 Louis Jackson, 9 Jake Leonard; 1 Lewis Holsey, 2 Jamie White, 3 Max Baggs, 4 George Parker, 5 Tom Berry, 6 George Bates, 7 Will Higgins, 8 Oli Thorneywork

Replacements | 16 Josh Olver, 17 Tom Furnival, 18 Ben Woodland, 19 Lewis Belton, 20 Ben Turner, 21 Will Lane, 22 Josh Phipps, 23 Charlie Gamble