When the final whistle sounded to confirm Yorkshire’s 26-13 win over Lancashire, Harrison Astley’s first thought was for his parents Andy and Emma. They were due to be on a family holiday on June 15. Not in Blackpool, or Tenerife. But Dubai. Not exactly a destination you can jump on a train or a plane to spend a few hours at Twickenham before returning to the family vacation.
The chance to watch their son at the home of rugby is too good an opportunity to pass by, so the two proud parents will be at TW1 to cheer their son on to victory over Kent. The versatile back, who can fill in at fly-half, full-back or winger, believes victory on Saturday will be a perfect platform for next season at Chants Ave.
“My family are in Dubai the weekend of the final,” Harrison said.
“But Twickenham, you can’t miss that. My parents will be there.
“Playing at Twickenham, it sounds pretty cool to be honest. It’s Twickenham, isn’t it?
“Being selfish, this sets us up nicely for next season at Hull RUFC.
“We’ll be straight back into things after a month or so.”
Astley is joined in the Yorkshire squad by four of his club team-mates – Jamie Major, Tom Bairstow, Ali Heard and Peter Hudson-Kowalewicz. All five played a crucial role in the famous win over Roses rivals Lancashire. Yorkshire led 19-3 at half-time thanks to two tries by Hudson-Kowalewicz which set the team up brilliantly for victory, even if Lancashire reduced the deficit to six points at one point in the second half.
“We were buzzing at half-time with the way things had gone in the first half,” Astley said.
“We might have taken things a bit too easy, thinking we had the better of them.
“But they had the wind in the second half and that put us on the back foot quite a lot.
“It was a bit nerve-wracking at times, but we held our composure and forced a couple of important turnovers and changed the game from there.”
HULL RUGBY UNION FOOTBALL CLUB 