Vandals Victorious in Yorkshire Silver Trophy Final
Vandals' Centenary season now has a cherry on top, having taken the spoils in a nail-biting Yorkshire Silver Trophy Final against Bramley Phoenix on Saturday 18th May 2024.
The Warley men showed vigour from the start, putting Bramley into full defence mode, but it wasn't enough to stop Ethan Pollard opening the scoring under the posts - Josh Brown converted. Bramley eventually managed to uncoil their own spring to level the scoreboard. As the match developed it was Vandals who found momentum and built their tally thanks to tries from vice-captain George Clapham and a touchdown by scrum-half Klay Murray at the back of a textbook pushover scrummage, taking their team into a healthy half-time lead of 19-7.
After the break Vandals added a penalty to make the points gap harder to breach but then Bramley won one of their own and a subsequent string of Vandals infringements allowed Bramley to fight back, taking the lead by two points (22-24) with 10 minutes left to play.
Vandals captain, Reuben Pollard, rallied his troops who regained their starting form with strong running from 1 to 15, forcing a penalty within range – Josh Brown kept a cool head to snatch back the lead. With five minutes to play Vandals were relentless, shattering the Bramley pack in a scrummaging display that would outclass a bulldozer – another score was inevitable.
Composure reigned as the Vandals retained possession whilst the clock ticked over and Joe Horne shared the maturity of the eager spectators by ‘sticking it in the trees’ to signal the full time whistle and celebrations all round!
The Warley men showed vigour from the start, putting Bramley into full defence mode, but it wasn't enough to stop Ethan Pollard opening the scoring under the posts - Josh Brown converted. Bramley eventually managed to uncoil their own spring to level the scoreboard. As the match developed it was Vandals who found momentum and built their tally thanks to tries from vice-captain George Clapham and a touchdown by scrum-half Klay Murray at the back of a textbook pushover scrummage, taking their team into a healthy half-time lead of 19-7.
After the break Vandals added a penalty to make the points gap harder to breach but then Bramley won one of their own and a subsequent string of Vandals infringements allowed Bramley to fight back, taking the lead by two points (22-24) with 10 minutes left to play.
Vandals captain, Reuben Pollard, rallied his troops who regained their starting form with strong running from 1 to 15, forcing a penalty within range – Josh Brown kept a cool head to snatch back the lead. With five minutes to play Vandals were relentless, shattering the Bramley pack in a scrummaging display that would outclass a bulldozer – another score was inevitable.
Composure reigned as the Vandals retained possession whilst the clock ticked over and Joe Horne shared the maturity of the eager spectators by ‘sticking it in the trees’ to signal the full time whistle and celebrations all round!
