St Joseph’s Sharks Under 12s maintained their unbeaten record with a hard-fought 32-8 victory at Dewsbury Celtic.

On a sloping pitch that demanded contrasting tactics in each half, St Joe’s produce a disciplined team performance.

Playing down hill in the first half, a quick try from Fred Woodhouse should really have set the tone for the remainder of the first half.

But credit has to go to Dewsbury, who dug deep to thwart the constant strong powered drives of Dan Carr, AJ Wallace, Ethan Myers and Tony Welsh.

Leading 4-0 it took a different approach from Joe’s to increase their advantage. Well structured moves straight off the training ground enabled Danny Fisher, Will Greenan and Kia McDonald to influence a more fluid gameplan once they were in Dewsbury half.

Moving the ball quickly across the pitch, Woodhouse found himself receiving the ball on the right with just 10m to reach the try line, Myers kicked the two points to make it 10-0.

Levell Lewis then produced a bit of magic. Dropping on the loose ball from a Celtic mistake his 80m run finished with him shrugging off a late attempted tackle to score under the posts. Again Myers kicked the conversion.

Just before the referee blew for half time, Dewsbury got reward for their determination and heart, a try in the top right corner, but they were 16-4 down at the break.

Early in the second period Dewsbury used the slope to reduce the deficit to eight points.

A strong performance was now required from St Joe’s and outstanding defending from Rishy Dhillon, George Wightman, Reece Collier and Matthew Watmough kept the Celtic forwards at bay.

Constantly defending set after set was proving to be physically demanding for the defence, however.

Thanks to the pace and agility of Harvey Turner, Jacob Bentley and Joe Morrison, ground was quickly made up the hill. Forcing Dewsbury onto the back foot, Fisher took advantage of a small gap that appeared and scored their fourth try.

Realising that attack was the best form of defence, st Joe’s then took the game to Dewsbury.

Power, pace and flowing rugby was the formula to overcome the difficult conditions and a strong Dewsbury outfit. Further tries from Morrison and Woodhouse together with successful kicks from Myers and Kieran Dean completed the victory.

Opposition man of the match was Jacob Bentley, Man of Steel Dan Carr and man of the match Will Greenan.