York Wasps were finally given something to smile about when the Academy team pulled off a superb 32-20 victory at Doncaster Dragons in their second match of the season.
The young Wasps opened the scoring after two minutes when prop Nick Caldwell charged over for a try and Andy Gargan converted.
Unfortunately a knock on straight from the kick-off gave Doncaster a scrum feed and the field position to score an unconverted try.
York's plans were disrupted early on when second row Paul Hagan - brother of first teamer Mick - left the field with an injury. He was followed minutes later by second row partner Danny Brown who damaged his shoulder, and prop Nick Burgess with concussion.
Doncaster made the most of a disorganised York defence to score two further unconverted tries. York rallied just before the break and Mark Dawson dummied his way through to score their second try. Gargan again converted to level the scores at the break.
From the second half kick-off York produced an almost perfect ten minutes, with loose forward Chris Keld leading the way with some devastating running and fellow debutant, half-back Ritchie Hunter, bringing the forwards on superbly.
During this spell Doncaster touched the ball only to kick-off as York scored four unanswered tries from Ben Peacham, Mark Dawson, Sean Flynn and Richard Scott, Gargan adding two conversions for a 32-12 lead which proved unassailable.
Keld was man of the match while Nick Caldwell, who due to injuries had to play the entire 80 minutes, was immense in both attack and defence.
The Academy's next match is at home to Featherstone on Sunday, kick-off 12pm, in a curtain raiser to the Wasps' first team game against Hull KR.
Wasps: Kyle Wood, George Boothroyd, Sean Flynn, Ben Jones, Richard Scott, Mark Dawson, Andy Gargan, Nick Caldwell, Robbie Dolan, Nick Burgess, Danny Brown, Paul Hagan, Chris Keld. Subs (all played) Paul Flynn, Ritchie Hunter, Ben Peacham, Danny Wilkes.
Updated: 12:27 Wednesday, May 09, 2001
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