Watching on from the sidelines at Brantingham Park as Yorkshire beat Lancashire 26-13, was Hull RUFC’s Director of Rugby Mike Umaga. Five players he has coached for a number of years were wearing the white rose county’s shirt with pride. There were fewer people in attendance prouder than him when the final whistle went and Yorkshire had booked their place in next Saturday’s final at Twickenham. Umaga, who has plenty of big matches on his CV, has this piece of advice for Jamie Major, Tom Bairstow, Harrison Astley, Ali Heard and Pete Hudson-Kowalewicz, who have all come through Bishop Burton.
“I’m really happy for them, they all played really well,” Umaga said.
“It’s always good to see players play representative rugby.
“They have represented the club and now they get to represent the county.
“A trip to Twickenham is never to be scoffed at.
“We’re into June now, and the boys are still prepared to play and I take my hat off to them for that.
“The season is long enough without the representative games.
“They still want to play rugby and they still want to play well.
“My advice to them would be to look after themselves, the day will come around quickly, but most importantly, enjoy it.
“These opportunities don’t come along very often, so enjoy every minute of it.”
HULL RUGBY UNION FOOTBALL CLUB 