St Bernard's Y9 22 Mirfield Y9 36

ST Bernard's quest for a National Schools rugby league title came to an end in the semi-finals.

Dewsbury school Mirfield brought the trophy quest to a halt one step from the final.

St Bernard's started well, and on the first set Lewis Woodend went agonisingly close to opening the scoring, only to have his effort ruled out for a double movement.

The Barrow side were soon on the scoreboard, as Luke Broadbent ran through to score under the posts, with Sam Beattie converting for a 6-0 advantage.

Things were looking promising, but straight from the restart Mirfield regained possession after a misjudged take from several St Bernard's players. The mistake enabled the West Yorkshire team to quickly bring the scores level with a converted try of their own.

The errors started to become more regular for the South Cumbrian, and after looking so promising in the early stages they found themselves 12-6 behind heading for half-time after another converted try.

There was hope before the break, however, as Rio Corkill used his strength and agility to score out wide, making it 12-10, with a missed conversion being the only difference between the teams.

Mirfield went further ahead with the first set of six in the second half, but St Bernard's came back to life, and powerhouse Will Hadwen crashed through the middle to score under the posts. Beattie converted for 18-16.

After some good defence from Joe Green, Matty Henderson, Martin Brun and Hayden Poole, Ryan Wilson took a good ball from Broadbent and shot through the middle to score a converted try and put SB back in the lead at 22-18.

It was looking good for the Barrow team, but a forced pass on the first tackle gave away possession, and this proved costly as Mirfield went back in front through a converted try with 12 minutes remaining.

Errors again started to dominate the Saints game, and a failure to keep hold of possession proved their downfall.

Mirfield scored two further converted tries in the last six mins to storm into the national final against past winners Glantaf, from Wales.

It was a game that was there for the taking for the Barrow side, but mistakes and bad decisions proved their downfall. They will look to bounce back next year and go one better to reach the grand final.