Twickenham joy for Josh
6:46pm Monday 12th May 2008
National under-20 Championship final Gloucestershire U20s 26 Yorkshire U20s 17 STROUD'S Josh Lister helped Gloucestershire to a surprise victory over Yorkshire at Twickenham on Saturday.
DURSLEY forward Jack Robson scored the try which sent Gloucestershire on their way against the favourites. The 19 year-old who is in his last year with Dursley colts, was joined by Ollie Winterbottom, Ben Morgan, Stef Hawley, and Rob Winchle in Gloucestershire's victorious Dursley contingent.
Yorkshire went into the game having cut a swathe through the North, but the men from the South-West were made of much sterner stuff and exerted a level of pressure that their opponents had not experienced this season.
Gloucestershire could not have wished for a better start. After only 53 seconds they went ahead when a clearance kick by fly-half Jonny West was charged down and lock Robson was on hand to gather the loose ball and dive over.
Fly-half Tony Wicks converted and then extended his side's lead on 17 minutes when he landed a penalty after a Yorkshire offence at a ruck.
Yorkshire gradually began to settle and though the Gloucestershire defence held firm to keep wingman Alex Orr out at the corner, they were not so successful when second-row Dominic Parsons plunged over from close range for West to convert.
Gloucestershire responded by taking play back into the Yorkshire 22 with some strong running and good support and when the White Rose men could not resist handling at a ruck under their own posts, Wicks added his second penalty.
After 34 minutes Yorkshire failed to deal with a Wicks cross-kick and second-row John Hennessy claimed the touchdown. Wicks converted to leave Yorkshire trailing 20-7.
First-half injury time brought an exchange of penalties by Wicks and West, leaving Gloucestershire 23-10 ahead going into the second-half.
There was no immediate shift in the shape of the game after the restart as Wicks nudged Gloucestershire further ahead with his fourth penalty and Gloucestershire continued to frustrate Yorkshire's hopes of getting back into the game with a solid defensive performance.
Yorkshire finally claimed their second try in the last minute of the game when they created enough space on the left for flanker Gavin Jones to score, with centre Luke Gray converting.
Despite playing 14 minutes of injury time, in which Yorkshire were mostly on attack, Gloucestershire held their composure to earn a deserved victory.
Coach Paul Morris said: "We were dismissed - there was no hope for us today. But we came here and played them off the park.
"Being underdogs didn't affect our preparations. We thought we could win, we thought we would win.
"There's a great rapport with the spectators and the support was great. But when you've got a side that goes out and plays with 100 per cent of everything they've got, it's not hard to support them. Everybody in Gloucestershire should be proud of this team."
Yorkshire U20: H Duthie, S Bottomley , T Stimpson , L Gray , A Orr, J West, J Gill, A Ross, T Young, A Goodwin, J Brady, D Parsons, N Carter, G Jones, R Burrows (capt).
Replacements (all used): S Rodgers, C Reakes, S Maycock, P Altham, K Dannatt, D Metcalfe, T Cokell. T: Parsons, Jones. C: West, Gray. P: West Gloucestershire U20: S Hawley (Dursley); C Hawkins (Hartpury Coll), R Winchle (Dursley), J Lister (Stroud), O Winterbottom (Dursley); T Wicks (Lydney), J Williams (Lydney); G Porter (Pertemps Bees), A Howells (Lydney) capt, C Bundy (Cinderford), J Hennessy (Matson), J Robson (Cinderford), J Preece (Pertemps Bees), C McNeil (Cinderford), B Morgan (Cinderford).
Replacements (all used): J Cresswell (Dings Crusaders), M Baker (Lydney), M Hurdle (Old Patesians), R Townsend (Hereford), W Foden (Hartpury Coll), S Arnott (Lydney), S Morris (Stourbridge).
Referee: A Hartwell (RFU). T: Robson, Hennessy. C: Wicks 2. P: Wicks 4