Hopwood retain North West cup crown

The Willows, home of Salford City Reds hosted the 2011 Carnegie Champion Colleges North West final this week as Hopwood Hall College took on Salford City College in what turned out to be a spectacular occasion.

Ryan Bradbury got Hopwood off to a flying start with a forty metre dash to the try line on four minutes. The conversion was missed. On nine minutes Chris Winston got Salford back on level terms with a strong solo effort which took the stand off across the line.

Hopwood were keen to make amends and continued to build pressure on the Salford line after a clever offload paid off on twenty one minutes, as Ryan Bradbury put in James Mills in out wide.

This followed with a try from Sean McCarthy three minutes later with Aiden Matthews converting to take the score line to 14 – 4 in favour of Hopwood. Salford had the last say of the first half after two quick penalties, Jamie Phillips touched down with Luke Warburton adding the extras to take the half time scoreline to 18 – 10 to leave Matt Calland happy with his side’s first half performance.

Salford came out firing in the second half with Jamie Phillips touching down on forty one minutes after some great build up play from the charging Salford forwards. This followed with a second two minutes later from man of the match James Mills with a successful conversion Aaron Hall – Worthington bringing the scores level at 18 – 18. The game now locked, both sides went end to end with the final play causing both sides to rethink their tactics.

On sixty three minutes Hopwood broke the deadlock with Matt Collins breaking through to touch down and take Hopwood into a 22 – 18 lead. The conversion was missed. Salford mounted a challenge on the Hopwood line again, however five minutes later Dylan OShea sealed the win for Hopwood with a great finish to the game, taking the title for Hopwood Hall College 26 – 18.

Tracey O Mara, Student Rugby League administrator was on hand for the presentations: “We would like to thank Salford City Reds for hosting the event. It was great to see both teams make it to the final following their recent league success. Both teams will now battle out in the National stages of the Carnegie Champion Colleges competition 2011.”