Outwood's U15 fairy tale continues

James Endersby is laying claim to be man ofthe tournament after he propelled the codebreakers of Outwood Grange into the final of the Daily Mail Under 15 Cup at Twickenham on March 24.

Just as we were closing the book on the Wakefield school's fairy tale run, with the rugby league converts seconds away from a 20 -17 defeat to St Paul's, they were awarded a scrum inside their own half. Captain for the day Phil Mohan admitted: 'We only had one plan. Get it to Enders.'

The centre, a balanced and powerful runner of deceptive pace, took the pass on the halfway line and once through the first tackle there was a certain inevitability that he would score his 17th try of the competition and second of a game, St Paul's should have wrapped up earlier. Kicking into agale force wind was more of a problem and he missed the chance of a 16th conversion but no matter, referee Andrew Vertigan blew for time to set off ecstatic celebrations.

Even at such a tender age, the self-effacing Endersby - 'I might score some tries but I'm part of great team' - is already being marked out for a career in the pro game. He has played both league and union for Yorkshire, is part of the Great Britain set-up and on the books of Castleford Tigers.But they might have a fight on their hands since he admits he's started to love this union lark since Outwood won the Yorkshire Cup last season and have scalped some union heayweights in the Daily Mail Cup.

That was not always the case. Andrew Green, head of PE at Outwood, a school where union used to come a poor third to league and soccer had to resort to subterfuge to persuade the boys to try the 15-man game.

'He used to tell us we had a league game and then when we arrived it would be union,' revealed Mohan. ' It was a good job, since we wouldn't have turned up.'