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| All six teams ahead of the games on Saturday |
Yorkshire students were crowned the 2014 Regional Champions on Saturday after a narrow victory over the Midlands.
A day that was highly competitive throughout as many of the students taking part in the tournament at Nottingham University were battling it out to be included in the England students train-on squad which is set be announced this week.
The games took a different format to what spectators of Rugby League are accustom to with games lasting 20 minutes.
Teams were placed into two different pools and were challenging for spots in the semi-finals and the final.
The first game of the afternoon pitched a battle of the north between the North East and the North West. The North East coming out on top with a 10 – 0 victory.
The champions of the day, Yorkshire didn’t get off to the best of starts as they were beaten by final opponents the Midlands. However despite a disappointing start, Yorkshire showed their credentials when they comfortably beat the South East 30 - 0 in their group stage fixture.
Unfortunately for the southern representatives of the tournament, the South East and the South West both failed to make it to the semi-final stages, the South East took overall 5th place with a 20-18 victory over their Southern rivals.
The North West would consider themselves unlucky to not reach the final despite a few losses throughout the tournament and went down 4 – 0 to the Midlands in the semi-finals. There was some consolation for the North West though, they clinched third place in the third vs fourth play-off against the North East.
Along with the North West, the North East will feel slightly hard done by too, they too suffered a 4 – 0 loss in the semi-finals at the hands of eventual winners Yorkshire.
The final proved to be an end to end thriller between the Midlands and Yorkshire, the Yorkshire men went in front early on only.
They could have seen their advantage doubled soon after, but a try was ruled out by the referee for an offside player chasing a kick.
The Midlands came back with a vengeance with good handling to keep the ball alive allowing them to grab an equalising score.
The game was won by Yorkshire when tiresome defence from the Midlands couldn’t stop the rampaging number ten for the men in white.
In the dying embers of the game, Midlands weren’t quite finished. Spreading the ball from right to left after some fantastic offloads their attacking raid came to an abrupt end when the winger on the left side failed to catch the ball which may have seen the Midlands win the competition.
Through sheer determination after their opening game loss, the Yorkshire students held the Regional Championship trophy high as the deserved winners.
