East Hull First to Final

4/27/2009

East Hull provided a masterclass in all round rugby league on Saturday by beating minor National Conference league Premiers Siddal 4-24 to progress to the Grand Final.

The Halifax side, missing the spark of Shaun Garrod at outside half, struggled to come up with any ideas to break down the East Hull defence, and had to rely on two penalties from the boot of Shaun Blackburn to score their points.

Easts, however, scored four excellent tries and always looked the more dangerous of the two teams. Led by the two halfbacks, Phil Hasty and Gary Blanchard, they constantly caused problems for the Siddal defence, and who would bet against them making it back-to-back Grand Final successes on May 10th ?

In the Semi-Final Eliminator Oulton Raiders scored yet another away success, this time at York Acorn, thrashing them 0-38, and setting up a Final Eliminator next saturday at Chevinedge against Siddal. The Raiders only just squeezed into the play-off positions and are now only 80 minutes away from another Grand Final.