BARLA U23s Start With Ukraine Win

Unison BARLA under 23s start with convincing Ukraine win

Ukraine Students .. 12 (8)
Unison BARLA Under 23s .. 46 (8)

Friday 4th June 2010 17:00 Jamie Hobbs @ FC Arsenal Stadium, Kharkiv, Ukraine

The BARLA Great Britain Under 23s opened up their Ukraine tour with a convincing 46-12 victory over a Ukraine Students littered with international players, but it wasn’t always plain sailing with scores tied at 8 each at the half time interval.

Following an emotional minutes silence in remembrance of Egremont player Garry Purdham the visitors were stunned when the Ukraine academics opened the scoring only 2 minutes into the game. Scrum Half Artem Lyubenskey throwing an outrageous dummy in his own half and showing fleet of foot to ovoid the cover defence on his way to the line.

The opening shock score seemed to wake BARLA into their expected stride as they began to make inroads into the defence and pulled back level only 6 minutes later. Following an earlier chalked off score for York Acorns Tom Hill for a forward pass from Brennan, the same flank set up the equalising try when Leigh Miners Leon Brennan raced to the line before setting up York Acorn winger Leigh Rientoul.

BARLA took the lead for the first time at the 20 minute stage when Leigh Miners centre Leon Brennan finished off a fine break from Myton’s Ashley James from inside his own half. That was to be BARLA’s only real opportunity of the half as poor ball retention meant that the ball was being turned over in their own half.

Just before the interval the Ukraine side drew back level when Andrey Bashevskey stayed sharp and collected a loose offload near the line and stepped the flat footed BARLA defence to take deserved tied 8-8 score line into the break.

Stern words and reiteration of the game plan from coaches Kevin Thompson and Alfie Hill seemed to spark what can only be described as master class or rugby league as BARLA 8 fantastic tries to put right, the wrongs of the first half.

Direct running from Kells forward David Lowery put BARLA camped on the Ukraine line and Oulton Raiders hooker Aiden Bowden spotted a gap in the markers and scooted over from acting half, GB captain Jamie Dallimore (Wigan St Cuthberts) added the first of the afternoons 3 successful conversion kicks.

The opening try seemed to open the flood gates for BARLA as they went in for 3 more tries before the hour mark.

Leigh East’s Andy Groves on the wing from the bench finished off an overlap in the corner exposed by Acorn’s Tom Hill before Eastmoor second rower Jamie Dodds latched onto a similar hands play from Acorns Timmy Elliott.
York Acorns Leigh Rientoul went into complete his brace with a sublime move which saw the ball the width the pitch as Egremont fullback Rhys Davies came into the line to feed lightning heels Rientoul who finished well in the corner.

In the closing quarter BARLA continued their attacking prowess adding another 20 points to their tally with 4 tries. Jamie Dodds who was earlier put over the line by Elliott repaid the favour offloading to Acorn scrum half to score the first of his afternoon brace. Oldham St Annes second rower

David Cookson showed great feet for a big man to bamboozle the Ukraine defence and wrestle out of several tacklers grasp to crash over, Jamie Dallimore converting.

Cookson once again showed his upper body strength to get the ball out of the tackle to Leigh Rientoul who showed his finishing skills to race through the jaded defence to complete his hatrick, Dallimore once again converted.

Timmy Elliott finished off a fine BARLA debut with his second of the afternoon backing up a marvellous break from his half from Thornhill’s James Craven.

The Ukraine side gave their home vocal crowd something to cheer about right on the whistle as Mikhail Troyan latched onto a nice ball that put him on the outside of the BARLA defenders and showed a turn of speed to race away into the corner.

Following the game head coach Kevin Thompson gave praise to his opposition saying “A very convincing score line at the final whistle but in the first half it was nip and tuck and it was a deserved draw at half time. I thought the Ukraine played outstandingly well, very physical, very fit but also very good passing game which surprised me. It does show that they are improving and their development is going in the right direction.”

After some stern words at half time Thompson was pleased in how they responded saying “I thought the second half was an outstanding performance from all the players but I thought we had a real impact player from Dave Lowery who came off the bench at prop forward. I think Timmy Elliot was consistently good all through the game but he helped us in the second half to complete, which weren’t doing in the first half. Rhys Davies ran the ball back well from full back and I moved Leigh Rientoul into the centres which I though tightened us up a little bit, he was wasted abit on the wing in the first half but that meant our defence then was in place and were able to complete better. In the second half I thought we were brilliant.”

The 23 man squad now have a days rest before the Artur Martirosyan Snr Memorial competition on Sunday where all the squad will be available for the 13 a side round robin competition involving 2 Ukrainian sides, BARLA and Russian side playing 15 minutes each way.

On the selection for the final test on Tuesday, Thompson said “I’ve seen a lot of players for the first time and I’ve learned a lot today. I think I now know our strengths and some of our weaknesses where we need to work on. I’m hoping for consistency now and will look for every performance being a top performance from our international team.

We’ve six players who didn’t get to play today so they will get the chance in the Artur Matirosyan Snr Memorial tournament on Sunday. They will all figure in these games and from that we will look at picking our strongest team for the final test on Tuesday. That’s what it’s all about, seeing on these lads compete at this level and seeing if they improve or if they have reached a level but at the moment I’ve got more positives than negatives.”

Ukraine Students Team :
9 Alekxa Dotsenko
3 Andrey Bashevskey
15 Pavel Kardakov
14 Aleksander Kozak
13 Sergey Kravchenko
7 Artem Lyubenskey
8 Lobanj Vladmimir
1 Vladmirir Mashkia
10 Maksim Miroschnichenko
5 Sergey Romanko
4 Igon Shevtsov
6 Alexander Skorbach
Subs (All used)
11 Youry Smoliy
12 Mikhail Troyan
23 Andrey Markelov
21 Artur Martirosyan

BARLA Under 23s Team :
6 Rhys Davies (Egremont)
4 James Craven (Thornhill Trojans)
15 Ashley James (Myton Warriors)
2 Leon Brennan (Leigh Miners)
21 Leigh Rientoul (York Acorn)
5 Jamie Dallimore © (Wigan St Cuthberts)
8 Tim Elliott (York Acorn)
9 Lee Fewlass (Myton Warriors)
1 Aiden Bowden (Oulton Raiders)
23 Steve Talbot (Thornhill Trojans)
18 Ben Kendal (Siddal)
3 David Cookson (Oldham St Annes)
13 Tom Hill (York Acorn)
Subs (All used) :
19 Dave Lowery (Kells)
7 Jamie Dodds (Eastmoor Dragons)
16 Dave Johnson (Thatto Heath Crusaders)
12 Andrew Groves (Leigh East)

Men of the Match
BARLA Under 23s: #19 Dave Lowery (Kells)
Ukraine Students: #7 Artem Lyvbensky

GAMEBREAKER: Dave Lowery’s introduction from the bench gave them so good forward and quick play of the play which started to win the ruck for BARLA.

GAMESTAR: Timmy Elliott on BARLA debut was consistently good at scrum half and directed BARLA attacking play in the second half.

TOP TACKLE: Full back Rhys Davies took man and ball as last man when Artem Lyubenskey took his own neat chip over to stop a certain try before half time.

Ukraine Students 12
Tries : Artem Lyvbensky (2), Andrey Bashevskey(39), Mikhail Troyan (80)
Goals : Alex Skorbach (0/3)

Unison BARLA U23s 46
Tries: Leigh Rientoul (8, 60, 74), Tim Elliott (67, 77), Leon Brennon (21), Aiden Bowden (42), Andy Groves (52), Jamie Dodds (57), David Cookson (70).
Goals : Ash James 0/2, Jamie Dallimore (3/8)

Scoring sequence: 4-0, 4-4, 4-8, 8-8, 8-14, 8-18, 8-22, 8-26, 8-30, 8-36, 8-42, 8-46, 12-46.

GLDO Forced: 0-2
Half-time: 8-8
Referee: Warren Turley (Leigh) Touch Judges : Denis Cheener, Alexander Ivchenko

Jamie Hobbs
UNISON BARLA U23s Media Manager