There might not have been much rugby league at Thornton Grammar School a year ago but their Year 11 boys' team have certainly made up for lost time.

They defeated John Smeaton College from East Leeds 18-8 at the new Leaventhorpe Lane Rugby Ground in the first round of the English Schools' National Under-16 Rugby League Cup.

Thornton, who qualified with only one defeat, delighted a capacity crowd against tough opponents.

The crowd proved the hosts' 14th man and a thunderous first tackle by Pryan Mistry soon led to his opposing prop leaving the field injured with only a couple of minutes gone.

Excellent teamwork then led to Sam Goodchild breaking free inside the first ten minutes to race to the far left corner and score the first try.

Emmot Parr-Gallagher, a convert from football, struck a perfect touchline conversion to make it 6-0.

Excellent defensive work by the backs then thwarted John Smeaton's bid to hit back and a loose pass by the visiting centre led to Thornton's next score in the 18th minute.

Ever-reliable Thornton captain Elias Liptrot seized the opportunity to pick the ball up and his break caught the Smeaton defence flat-footed.

Two quick passes out to the left wing gave Joshua Jowett the chance to race through and score Thornton's second try, again in the far left corner.

And once more Emmot Parr-Gallagher produced his second perfect conversion to increase the lead to 12-0.

John Smeaton pushed hard but could not break the defence, with great tackles from Lewis Wright, Brad Asquith-Briggs, Johnny Smith and Leighton Ruff.

Eventually, John Smeaton decided to take a kick at goal, reducing Thornton's lead to 12-2 at half-time.

For the first ten minutes of the second half, there was little between the teams, except for some good footwork leading to a nice break involving Thornton's David Wilkinson and Matthew Fairbrother.

Finally, the home side's James Hudson proved to many what he is capable of and ran almost the length of the pitch, beating several opponents to score the try of the game under the posts. Parr-Gallagher's conversion made it 18-2.

With eight minutes left, Thornton started to play carnival rugby instead of keeping the game tight and were nearly caught wide open.

However, great recovery tackles were made by Olly Ballister, Aiden Hanse and Tom Nicholls.

Six minutes later, Thornton's players must have been too busy ordering the champagne as some slack defending led to a converted consolation try.

Within the past year, staff at the school have put in a tremendous effort to get a pitch, a new kit and training for all year groups every week, with coaches from Bradford University coming in.

It all bodes well for the rugby league future of a school that has produced stars such as Leon Pryce and Steven Crossley.

However, class told in the second round, and Hull winners Pickering trounced Thornton Grammar 72-0.

Almost as heavily defeated in the first round were Bradford's Wyke Manor, who fell 56-6 against Leeds opposition in Woodkirk.

And South Craven (North Yorkshire) found things little easier against Winifred Holtby (Hull), going down 64-6, but Whitcliffe Mount (Kirklees) defeated Brooks-bank (Calderdale) 48-4.

In the Year Ten first round, St Bede's defeated Carr Manor (Leeds) 24-10, while Buttershaw went down 26-18 against Bruntcliffe (Leeds) and Raistrick (Calderdale) went out against Colne Valley (Kirklees) after a thrilling 32-32 draw.

Yorkshire Martyrs and St Bede's were Bradford's first-round entrants at Year Nine level, with Martyrs being crushed 58-0 by Woodkirk (Leeds) and St Bede's going down 62-20 in a derby against Pudsey-based Priesthorpe (Leeds).

However, South Craven had a marvellous 26-12 win over Kingswood (Hull).

Tong and Buttershaw were flying the flag in round one for Bradford at Year Eight level, but there was no joy, Tong bowing out 42-20 against Boston Spa (Leeds) and Buttershaw 50-0 to the David Young Academy (Leeds).

Heckmondwike (Kirklees) were also victims, losing 24-4 to St Catherine's (Calderdale).