Saints and Waterhead fall to Hunslet home force

RUGBY:

THE Carnegie Challenge Cup road came to an abrupt end at Hunslet for local sides Oldham St Anne’s and Waterhead.

While Saints were beaten 32-8 by Hunslet Warriors, Waterhead were unable to hold on to a first-half lead as they lost 26-14 at Hunslet Old Boys.

In an entertaining first-round tie at Warrior Park, Saints took the lead in the eighth minute when prop forward Michael Cadd crashed over the line.

Five minutes later Hunslet, champions of the National Conference League interim campaign, were on level terms with a try from centre Chris Hartley.

Saints had full-back Lee Forsythe sin-binned for dissent on the half-hour mark, and the home side took advantage of the extra man when Bryn Powell touched down in the corner. Gary McClelland added the conversion for a 10-4 lead at the interval.

After the break, Saints went close with efforts from Chris Carter and Paul Ashmore, but on the hour captain Caldon Bravo managed to get on the scoresheet with a try.

Saints man-of-the-match Jordan White produced a try-saving tackle on substitute George Rayner, before last season’s leading NCL try scorer Mark Cunningham raced 60 metres to score under the posts. McClelland added the extras to take the game away from the Saints.

Two more tries quickly followed from Omar Mehdi and full-back McClelland, with the latter adding both conversions.

With five minutes remaining, Niall Collins crossed for a consolation try for Saints.

Chris Deakin, the Saints coach said: “We always knew it was going to be difficult, but it was a tremendous effort by everyone.”




WATERHEAD were restricted to just a couple of points in the second half as they slipped to defeat in South Leeds.



Tom Saunders put the Old Boys ahead with a converted try after nine minutes following a neat inside pass from Ben Dean.

But a Terry Fitzgerald effort, followed by a Carl Sneyd goal, levelled the scores moments later.

Fitzgerald then drew two defenders before releasing Darren Nixon for a try after 21 minutes to put Waterhead in front.

Danny O’Connor was sin-binned for the Old Boys, but they responded with a Jack Raby touchdown on debut.

Waterhead replied with a penalty to lead 14-10 just after restart, but that was as good as it got for the men from Peach Road.

Jamie Fields added a try to an earlier conversion, and then kicked a penalty for a two-point advantage for the Old Boys with 11 minutes to go.

And Waterhead knew their fate once Jerome Malcolm and Dean went over late on.