U17s - Malton Vs Barnsley

MATCH REPORT : Yorkshire Vase U17 competition.

Semi-final result: Malton and Norton 0 Barnsley 32

Barnsley U17's clinched a place in the Yorkshire Vase Final with a brilliant display of powerful,exciting rugby.After making the long journey to Malton, the hosts may have thought that Barnsley would look a little rusty in the opening stages,but must have been shellshocked at the blistering start made by the young Shaw Laners.Determined to make club history by becoming the first ever junior side to win a major trophy, Barnsley attacked with pace,power and aggression and forced the hosts on the defensive.Josh Fletcher,Evan James and Tom Newman soon got to grips with a strong Malton pack and the back three of Jack Iles, James Gilroy and Josh Pink drove at the Malton rearguard relentlessly.Malton fought hard to keep Barnsley at bay but even when they did manage to get the ball, crunching tackles from Tom Hemingway and Nick Watson soon got Barnsley back in the ascendancy.Finally, the pressure paid off with the opening try from man of the match Iles.Chris Jackson then added a superb second to give Barnsley a 10-0 half time lead.

In the first 10 minutes of the second half, Malton had their best spell winning good possession in mid-field,but could find no way through,with Joe Gray and the outstanding James Turton producing some bone crunching challenges.Having weathered the storm Barnsley then moved into top gear.Skipper Joe Halstead was in the middle of everything as Barnsley,despite a very heavy pitch, tore into their rivals.Jamie Green and Ashley Salkeld,in great form in the centres, were involved in some brilliant, pacy passing moves, resulting in a try apiece .Simon Lau continued his excellent recent form and added another and Gavin Thistlewood added to his 2 points from the boot with the try of the game, an exquisite lob which he raced onto himself and left the home defence for dead before touching down.Malton, to their credit, never gave up and fought hard to the final whistle but this was Barnsley's day and they were rightly jubilant at the end after clinching a brilliant victory.They now face Pontefract in the final on 27 April at Heath RFC and although they go into the final as underdogs,will give everything they have got and hopefully clinch that place in the clubs history books.