A team of property professionals from the North West have retained the title of Northern Champions in the annual Tri-Regions Rugby tournament, raising money for the British Heart Foundation in the process.
The triangular tournament which took place at the Leeds Carnegie Stadium in Headingley, saw 70 property professionals across three teams from the Midlands, North West and Yorkshire take each other on to compete for the coveted title.
The first game saw the North West reprise the ‘Rose Bowl’ in a tough encounter with the Lancastrians only moving ahead in the third quarter thanks to well taken tries by Josh Whiteley (Williams Commercial) and Sam Morris (Workman and Partners) to see the North West crowned as Northern Champions.
The Yorkshire team were ‘strong in arm’ but lacked guile outside which was their ultimate shortcoming and despite repeated threats failed to cross the whitewash all afternoon.
Yorkshire was ultimately well beaten in the second game against their Midlands counterparts but only following a titanic arm wrestle and the Midlands using their greater squad numbers to good effect as the trials of 80 minutes continuous rugby began to affect the Tykes performance.
And so to the final game, a decider with the North West keen to secure the Championship for the first time. The North West stormed into an early lead, propelled by a titanic start from the pack, and touching down twice with tries from Pat Hughes (Legat Owen) and George Oakey (JLL) to go to half time with a 12 – 0 lead.
Minutes into the second half the game seemed to be over as the North West (Pat Hughes) scored again following an electric break from 60 metres by Morris, only for the referee to award a double movement and no try.
Elation led to deflation as the Midlands rallied well, brought on fresh legs and scored 4 times in 10 minutes to break Lancastrian hearts to retain the trophy.
The final scores were:
Yorkshire 0 North West 12
Yorkshire 0 Midlands 15
North West 12 Midlands 26
North West Man of the match was given to Josh Whiteley and special mention to Matt Ibbotson (Iberdrola Construction) who was a powerhouse in the pack.
Tony O’Keefe, captain of the North West Team and Director at DTZ commented: “The tournament has gone from strength to strength since its conception and we are pleased to support the British Heart Foundation as this year’s charity. Thanks go to our main sponsors Graftongate and the continued support from DTZ, BLUU and ADT Workplace, without their support this event would not be possible.”
