The Academy Brothers got the first game of the day underway on a misty, chilly and damp morning in East Hull and for the next 15minutes or so the teams tested each other out without troubling the scorer. RNRL broke the deadlock on 17 minutes, a kick through was fended off by the Army defence into the arms of the RN attack 40 m out and another break through the cover finished with a deft pass outside to Gwydion Jenkins who finished the move in some style beating the Army cover to touch down close to the posts. Eli Steinberg converting 0:6. Another almost identical move saw Jenkins cross the line barely 2 minutes later but he was adjudged to have been in touch when the tackle came in but Army certainly on the back foot. The next 15 minutes saw no further scores but the RN pressure on the bigger units in the red wall was almost incessant leading to the Army conceding penalties to pile more pressure on themselves. Alfie Mitchell took the ball 15 out skipping through the defence was brought down 5 from the line, Adam Hinton took the ball on but he too was held up on the line, a quick play the ball and Joe Potifa poached a try between the weary looking Army defence, great hookers try, Steinberg was on target again doubling the RN lead to 0:12. The final score of the half was another team try for the Brothers, a kick through forced a drop out by the Army, good hands across the park saw the ball move out to the far right wing and centre Pete McMahon finished off the move despite having three Army defenders hanging on, no conversion this time but that was the half, 0-16, great performance by Sean Houghton’s men!

Into the second half and it was business as usual, RN making good yards at almost every play but the Army hanging on to prevent the score. The only real chance the men in red in the early stages of the half was called back for a booming forward pass as the right winger finally had some room to work with. Another needless penalty given away for ‘afters’ in the tackle put RNRL deep into the Army’s 20. The initial attack was halted and Army had the ball, a poor pas was fumbled 10 out by the defender, Eli Steinberg gratefully scooped up the ball diving between the two desperate defenders to touch down, converting his own score his side were now up by 22 going into the last quarter. The pattern of the game continued into the dying minutes of the game, tenacious defence by the RN frustrated the Army who, when they did have an opening, made unforced errors to halt heir progress. Some consolation for the Army though in the last 5 minutes of the game, a brace of unconverted try’s gave the scoreboard a bit of respectability. Final score 8:22 a mighty performance by the Academy Brothers, thoroughly deserving their third victory over the Army and the third IS Academy title since Covid making it the 6th title in the 20 years of the Academy competition. Great effort across the park and from the bench with Alfie Mitchell getting Man of The Match.
Congratulations to Coach Sean Houghton, Manager Anthony Underwood, all the backroom staff but mainly skipper Elliott Richardson and his players awesome achievement- ok one more time it’s a double treble RN v Army x 3 and IS Champs x 3

Thanks to the Army ‘Twitch’ team you can view the whole match at
https://www.twitch.tv/armyrugbyleague
Enjoy!