Yorkshire 22 Lancashire 20: Red Rose lose battle but win War of the Roses

A 20-point deficit for the White Rose county following a 38-18 defeat a week earlier at the Woodlands was never likely to put them off a sustained assault on Lancashire in the second leg at Hull Ionians ground and so it proved.

The hosts raced away with two tries in the first 15 minutes, with centre Greg Minikin and scrum-half Noah Cowan touching down. A successful penalty kick by Lancashire captain Chris Johnson made the score at 12-3.

Winger Leo Gilliland finished off a smart move before the interval with a neat try and Johnson added the extras to reduce the deficit to 12-10.

Back came Yorkshire with powerful left winger James Norman benefiting from a neat pass by Minikin and extending the lead with a try before half-time.

Immediately after the break, Gilliland’s fine try acrobatically in the corner made it 17-15. Yorkshire fly-half James Watts finished off a period of pressure on the Lancashire line by touching down and a few minutes later Johnson was sent to the bin for what was judged as a deliberate knock-on.

Johnson returned for the closing minutes and finished the tie off in the best way by benefiting from No.8 Tom Ailes' break near the Yorkshire try line in the 77th minute to finish the scoring.

Lancashire Head Coach Alex Loney said: "We're really excited to get back to a Twickenham Final. Both teams showed how much they wanted to get there. It was a really tight game and a fine advert for the County Championship."

YORKSHIRE: Hinchcliffe; Viner, Dobson, Minikin, Norman; Watts, Cowan; Mitchell, Stephenson, Bairstow, Makin (c), Harrison, Hastie, Hyde, Brankley. Reps: Archer, Wand, Dalby, Dodds, Henshall, Keith, Manderfield, Harriott-Brown.

LANCASHIRE: Freeman; Dorrington, Forster, Clayton, Gilliland; Johnson, Sturgess; Bowker, Ellam, Rylance, Garrod, WaltonB, Deans, Kassam-Sharples, Ailes. Reps: Deeks, Kyle-Clay, Birchall, WaltonM, Fairclough, Rawlings, Williams, Bradley.