GERMAN YOUTH RUGBY LEAGUE FESTIVAL FINAL

Scotland Under-16 triumphed in the RLEF’s Youth Rugby League Festival held in Baden-Wurttemberg over the weekend. In a game RLEF Central Europe Regional Director described as “a complete privilege to watch” Scotland finally broke the tense stalemate eleven minutes into the second half when Gateshead scrum-half Sinclair Matthews (pictured) scored a try.

After such a stern tussle in the first half, Scotland then struck again three minutes later as the Russians were still coming to terms with being behind and having to fight back. Matthews’ cross kick was gathered by Aberdeen Spartans second row Mitchell Scott to give the Scots a 10-0 lead and enable their robust defence to shut down Russia’s desperate attacks. Matthews scored one of two late penalty attempts to give Jason Flowers’ team a memorable 14-0 win.

Matthews was ecstatic following the match: “This was great tournament for us. We had a really competitive game against Russian. The whole team is very proud with the result and I hope that next year we will play in a similar youth festival.”

His counterpart Ruslan Kalimulin Ruslan from Nara RLFC was understandably shattered after such an absorbing contest: “This was a very difficult and physically demanding game for our team. In the first half we played well but we slumped in the second. We had a long trip, about 2500km from Moscow to Heidelberg, and I think that was reflected in our performance.”


RUSSIA U16
Nagornyy Pavel, Shaydurov Egor, Safranov Roman, Lazer Denis, Sachkov Yury, Ismailov Timur, Kashirskiy Artem, Volkov Andrey, Belov Vladislav, Shidariya Roman, Kucherenko Vladislav, Sidelnikov Mikhail, Kanevskiy Oleg. Subs: Golubev Mikhail, Syzranov Dmitry, Kalimulin Ruslan, Kuklin Anton, Loginov Andrei

SCOTLAND U16
Allen, Lee Edwards, Grindley, Watts, C. Reid, McTaggart, Matthews, Ramsay, Haggarty, Rennie, G. Reid, Pollock, Godfrey. Subs: Hughes, Seery, Scott, C. Walker, McKeown, K. Walker, Doherty