HEWORTH set up a showdown with York Acorn in the final of the York & District ARL Cup thanks to a 16-8 success over New Earswick All Blacks at White Rose Avenue.

Heworth went into the midweek semi-final sitting pretty at the top of the Yorkshire Men's League first division, looking likely to replace New Earswick in the premier next term, the All Blacks lying at the foot of the top flight.

In a keenly fought contest, both sides made light of several heavy downpours to produce an entertaining encounter.

The Villagers led 16-2 at the break with tries by Fergus Chapman, Harry Radcliffe and Gareth Watson, plus two George Elliott conversions, in response to a Tom Barron penalty for New Earswick.

The only points of the second period came from the hosts with a Jack Carling touchdown goaled by Barron six minutes from time.

The final will take place at White Rose Avenue next Wednesday night.

Acorn, as a National Conference League club, will go into it as clear favourites, despite Heworth's winning form.

However, Blue and Golds coach Leigh Paul-Rientoul, whose side face a battle to break into the play-offs in NCL division one, admits the pressure is on them.

He said: "It’s not ideal playing three games in a week when we have (a number of) injuries, but it’s a cup final and I’m sure the players will want to put themselves forward.

"We have, for the last so many years, been the best team in York and we would be expected to win, so there’s a lot of pressure on us and not on the other teams because they’re the underdogs.

"The National Conference League is a better standard than the Yorkshire Men’s League, but we’ve got to try not to go in too big-headed and think, ‘We’re going to blast this’.

"We’ve got to treat our opposition with respect."

Acorn had seen off York Lokomotive in the other semi-final last week.

Paul-Rientoul added: "Against Lokos, it finished 50-6, but they scored the first try and it took us 10, 15 minutes to get into it.

"We can’t go in throwing the ball around like an NRL team, we’ve got to stick to our game plan."