Roundhegians 10's round up

Aireborough's pre-season preparation for their Yorkshire Division 3 campaign stepped up a notch with a run-out at the annual Roundhegians 10's tournament.

For the second year running, Aireborough were pooled with hosts Roundhegians and Bramley Phoenix; with Division 3 local rivals Old Otliensians and Leeds Beckett 2's making up the rest of the pool. Luck was on Aireborough's side with the draw - the other pool looked tougher on paper with national outfit Morley, Wetherby, West Park Leeds, Leeds Beckett 1's and Harrogate Pythons all competing for a top two spot and a place in the semi finals.

Aireborough kicked off the pool against hosts Roundhegians and were deservedly in the lead at half-time through a Stuart Wilson try which, once converted by Captain Ollie Catherall, nullified an early 'Hegians try. Despite the forewarning of the coaching team to keep it tight on the insides, Aireborough were cut open twice in the second half on the inside and proceeded to lose their opening game 19-7.

The second opponents in the pool were local rivals Old Otliensians. Aireborough were the architects of their own downfall with poor offloads out of the tackle and a lack of communication in defence. Trailing 17-0 at half-time, Aireborough pulled up their socks and, whilst not rewarded with a try, were stronger in defence and only conceded one try in the second half to finish up on the wrong side of a 24-0 defeat.

Aireborough took on the students from Leeds Beckett in the third pool game; knowing that nothing less than handsome victories in their final two pool games was required to hopefully sneak into second place in the pool. A very strong Leeds Beckett side, containing a number of Yorkshire U20's and a clone of Mario Itoje who destroyed yours truly in the scrum, put a tiring Aireborough to the sword with a similar scoreline to the Otliensians game.

The final pool game was the wooden spoon play-off against Yorkshire Division 4 side Bramley Phoenix. Aireborough ran in a number of tries to run out comfortable winners with Ollie Catherall opening the scoring, Lewis Barrett adding a brace and Oscar Edwards converting his own try.

Both semi finals were won by the respective Leeds Beckett teams, with the 1's beating Rouundhegians and the 2's beating Morley; with Leeds Beckett 2's defeating their own first team in the final.

Aireborough bowed out of the tournament with one win out of their four pool games. Whilst it was a good run out and a chance to build on the foundations that Si and the coaching team have built, it was clear evidence that further work is required over the next few weeks before the season kicks off early September. The hard running of Matty Jones was particularly impressive with Si naming him the Aire player of the tournament.