There was an eerie familiarity about the crowd of spectators at Crag Lane on Saturday, probably because they were pretty much all from Ripon. Whilst not renowned for travelling in particular strength, those that made the short journey to Alwoodley certainly outnumbered the home support and their encouragement and commitment was definitely commensurate with the character that was shown by the club’s 1st XV in playing out their second successive win of the season. Not wanting to milk the moment, but there were hardly any meaningful distractions by way of critical World Cup games being televised at the time, nor was there a huge crowd of the Leodiensian “faithful” sheltering indoors from the inclement weather, for which there was no need. The situation was reminiscent of a question I once asked of an old acquaintance as to whether he was still a season ticket holder at Aston Villa or not? The answer, “They don’t come to see me when I’m bad”, said it all.

Continuing on the weather and seasonal theme, mid-autumn approaching now, with the surrounding vegetation taking on picturesque hues, lazy sunlight bothering those that face it during the second half and the transient Canada Geese population heading for warmer climes; several omens appeared on the way to and during the game. At one point when Skipper Newcombe pointed out the skein of geese overhead to veteran Fly Half Richard Hooks; so inspired was he with the message that he hoisted a mighty touch kick, almost disabling a straggling bird. The message was actually about, “Look, more geese, let’s use their teamwork as inspiration”, as opposed to “Let’s try and kick one out of the sky!” That said, all of the team members stuck together, supported each other, led when necessary, didn’t let anyone become isolated and turned in a honking good performance.

Fielding a side with a yet more changes from last week (and nothing wrong with that), both in personnel and positional, Ripon again represented a subtle blend of youth and experience. The recall of veteran Jason Bell at Centre was designed to bring maturity to the back line and the evergreen Mark Rees at Hooker, was selected to start and endure a full 80 minutes of play based on his guile, agility and dogged Welsh determination to win. Welcome recalls also went to Joe Duffield and Andy Williamson, representing opposite ends of the age spectrum. Not least of those stepping up to the occasion, was the stupendous contribution of Stu Pender, a late substitute for club stalwart Andy Proud as the sole arbiter of fact on the touch line.

And so to the game. With the whole team arriving on time and able to conduct the pre-match preparation in the right tone and at the right pace; Ripon entered the game confident of a reasonable outcome. Were it not for the complete domination of the scrum by Leos, Ripon would probably have run out of attacking options and so were forced to live off scraps from that phase. Leos seemed to produce unforced handling errors from nowhere and the way the referee interpreted their behaviour at the breakdown, gave Ripon more possession than they have been used to of late. With a definitely shaky scrum, Ripon sought to avoid that area of the game and exploit others by keeping the ball alive. Leos however, seemed to keep knocking-on for fun; just to see the visitors punished in yet another scrum. On the contrary to the hard ground lost in the scrums, Ripon’s lineout worked particularly effectively and consistently throughout the game. This was acknowledged early on by Skipper Newcombe and so the game was won through intelligent use of Ripon’s strengths, superbly organised defence and the courage to face up to superior fire power in the forwards.

Ripon kicked off the game and immediately put the home side on the back foot and under pressure enough to force a scrum in the first minute. Unceremoniously shunted off their own put in, Ripon saw the writing on the wall and knew it was going to be a long hard slog up front. From some scrappy play. Leos put the ball into touch for Ripon to earn a line out throw in. Clean ball saw Harry Cleary cut a sharp line to feed Joe Duffield coming in from the opposite wing. Duffield then cut back towards the posts to find the effervescent man of the match Euan Findlay, on his shoulder to carry the ball over for the first try at five minutes of play. Hooks added the conversion effortlessly.

The next thirty five minutes saw Ripon defending superbly against any Leos’ attacks, Leos seemingly unable to get any real cohesion going and the visitors desperately trying to keep the ball away from the home team’s giant front five. There were some close encounters, but neither side really looked like scoring, until the fortieth minute of the half. Ripon lost two own put in defensive scrums in succession, to give Leos sufficient room to let their winger, an ex-Ripon hopeful, in for an unconverted try to keep them in the game at the half time whistle, score line 5 - 7.

The second half took a while to get going, with Leos’ possession hampered by mistakes and Ripon giving them the ball back through scrums won against the head. Ripon’s defence held resolute throughout and everyone, man and boy stepped up to put their bodies on the line to stop the home side breaking through. One such example of heroism was when Joe Duffield fearlessly tackled a home forward to stop his line break. Whilst the closest players to the incident were Leos’ forwards, one wondered as to their veracity when they all insisted that Joe had been knocked unconscious. That said, the club takes injury recommendations very seriously and so “Danger Man” Duffield was removed from the field and will take no further part in playing activities until deemed safe to do so by the medics.

After a relatively quiet first quarter, the game finally came alive in the 65th minute, when from a defensive line out just ten metres from their own line, Ripon won the ball and Hooks hoofed the ball down-field with Euan Findlay hot in pursuit. Findlay hacked on twice during his 70 metre sprint to set the ball for a perfect bounce for him to collect and score his second try of the game and third of the season. Hooks narrowly missed the conversion attempt from the corner. The next opportunity to increase the score was a penalty attempt at 65 minutes, which Hooks again narrowly missed.

After a further ten minutes of torrid exchanges, with Ripon continuing to live off scraps from their scrum, but benefitting from excellent line speed in defence and gradually earning the respect of the referee for fairly contesting the breakdown; from yet another clean line out, Ripon pushed on through Bell. Bell offloaded to Cleary, who fed ever present Euan Findlay and after a fast paced one-two, Cleary touched down for his second 1st XV and eighth try in three adult games so far. Definitely one to watch for the rest of the season. Hooks made no mistake of the conversion and concluded the scoring at a creditable 5 – 19.

Again, not a perfect display, but one of determination and confidence to change patterns when weaknesses are identified, exploit scoring opportunities and play with a passion that can only come from belief in the team and its players. Whilst a few players have been mentioned so far, it would be unrealistic to mention all players from this game, yet all their contributions made the result what it was, so well done all of you.

This weekend Ripon entertain Knottingley for an interesting mid-table clash. It is hoped that the weather stays fine and that no unexpected showers dampen the enthusiasm, or good nature of their travelling supporters. Team players to meet at 1.45pm, kick off 3.00pm. Interesting World Cup matches or not, Ripon RUFC needs everyone out there at the pitch side to cheer the team on to a third successive victory.