UPPER Wharfedale School's under-16s have been crowned RFU White Rose Yorkshire champions.

They needed to play 13 matches just to reach the finals of the 70-team competition which were played at The Shay, Halifax.

Allerton High School from Leeds, Brighouse School, and Harrogate Grammar School were their opponents.

Upper Wharfedale's first match was against Allerton and tries from Joe Fawcett, Jack Wells, and Rian Hamilton plus three conversions from Eddie Gill, gave them a 21-0 win.

Brighouse were their second opponents and Upper Wharfedale won a close encounter 21-15. James Walker, Jack Reynard and Hamilton scored tries which were all converted by Gill.

Harrogate beat Allerton High which meant it would all come down to the final game.

Upper Wharfedale made a slow start, going two tries down in the early minutes. However, Harrogate missed a conversion so the score remained at 12-0.

A quick response from Upper Wharfedale, with a converted try by Hamilton made the score 12-7. The game was evenly matched with both sides creating chances.

With minutes to go Reynard scored a try right underneath the posts to make the score 12-12. Gill stepped up to take, what must be, the winning conversion. Uncharacteristically the ball hit the post and bounced out to leave a nervy last 30 seconds for both teams.

As the time ticked down to zero both teams knew the scores were level and didn’t want the ball to go dead. With risky play from both teams, as they tried to get the winning score, it was Hamilton, after excellent work from Joe Moorhouse and Jack Balderson, who managed to break free and score the winning try which Gill converted for a 19-12 win.

After eight months of hard work and 17 matches, Upper Wharfedale were RFU White Rose Yorkshire Champions.