PERHAPS it’s in the genes!
That was my immediate reaction following Saturday’s Steven Mullaney Memorial Trophy Boys’ Year 7 Inspiresport Champion Schools final, which got the day at Wembley off to a cracking start.
The early stages of the match, between St Peter’s Roman Catholic School of Orrell, Wigan, and Ysgol Glantaf, of Cardiff, were highlighted by a couple of superb kicks to the corner by Leo McMullen.
The halfback’s pinpoint specials led in each case to a try and, in truth, the Welsh lads never recovered, despite becoming more threatening as the game wore on.
As St Peter’s dominated, McMullen was aided and abetted by his halfback partner Harry Brown, who showed gallons of guile and creativity and who scored a long-range try for good measure.
Brown and McMullen’s dads are, respectively, former England and Super League star Kevin, and former BARLA Great Britain captain John.
Harry looked very much like his father with ball in hand and I’ve no doubt at all that Kevin and John will have been very chuffed with their sons’ performances.
The young Brown-McMullen axis made the most of a solid platform set by their forwards and it will be interesting to monitor the progress of all the St Peter’s players – and, for that matter, of the Glantaf youngsters, who showed commendable resilience after having looked, at one stage, to be in danger of a real slugging – over the next decade or two.
And, among many wonderful moments at the end, there was a very special one when John McMullen ensured that Jack Thompson joined in the celebrations.
Jack, whose brother James was in the St Peter’s team, was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy when he was three years old and the ‘Joining Jack’ project was launched, to deservedly huge success, in July 2012.
That moment, together with the applause seven minutes into each of the four games on Saturday – and the fact that the schoolboys’ game was, as always, played in the memory of Steven Mullaney – made Wembley 2024 a very emotional occasion.
First published in League Express newspaper, Issue 3,434 (June 10, 2024)
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