Big 'D' sees St Peter's through

Defence wins cup matches they say and it was no more true than in the case of St Peter's, York who reached their second Daily Mail U15 Cup semi-final with an impressive 8-3 win at Prince Henry's, Evesham.

The home side were no mean exponents in the defensive arts themselves having kept their line intact throughout six ties but, playing with the wind in the first half, the unbeaten York boys made the first breakthrough when they put James Pangaway with the right winger breaking two tackles to score from 20 metres.

Apenalty by full back Charlie Parry gave St Peter's only an 8-0 cushion athalf time.At that stage No 8 Thomas Woolsey took charge of proceedings and with greatsupport from his pack, strangled the life out of Prince Henry's challenge.

His ability to control the game from the base of the scrum and spoil thehome side's possession proved decisive athough Prince Henry's managed topeg back the score to 8-3 with a penalty from fly half Daniel Antonelly andwent close during a great spell of controlled rugby.

"I though we would struggle to hold out', said St Peter's coach MikeJohnson, "But Thomas had a massive game and we did a great job denying themthe ball. We managed to hold them on the 22 in the second half whereasbefore half time we were mostly within 10 yards of their line with the windbehind us.

"They were a very good side and it was easy to see how they had built up animpressive record but our technique and organisation stood up to a bigtest."