Beckfoot School’s under-15 boys’ team, who have shown that hard work pays off, are on a national revenge mission.

They face St Cuthbert’s High School in Newcastle on Thursday in the Conference quarter-finals (1pm), having lost to the same school last year in Bingley in the last 16.

The Beckfoot team was set up in 2009 by newly-qualified teacher Dave Lawal, who said of his charges: “There were ten Year Seven pupils then, and they, like me, were fresh to the school.

“They took to the sport immediately and we spent the remainder of the year working on the basics. At the end of the year, despite being undersized and lacking club-standard players, we got to the final of the Bradford Cup – a school competition to crown the best team in the city – and lost by a point.

“But this was our only loss in four years of league and cup matches in the city, and the players, who went from strength to strength, joined local teams, such as Bradford Dragons and Leeds Carnegie Juniors.”

Lawal added: “In Year Nine, we had the opportunity to compete outside of Bradford, and last year took part in the West Yorkshire School Games at Leeds Met, and beat teams from Leeds, Wakefield and Calderdale to become West Yorkshire champions.

“We represented West Yorkshire in the English Schools’ Competition, and lost by seven points to St Cuthbert’s in the last 16, only our second defeat in three years. This season we have again gone undefeated.”

Beckfoot squad: James Banton (captain), Sam Forster, Sam Powell, Jay Balanda, Yusuf Rasul, Elliott Clarke, Jermaine Ramsden, Matty Garland, Alex Leadbeater, Louis Ogol.