1st XV Match Report Saturday 24th October 2015

Now the dust has settled on a weekend of frenetic club and international Rugby competitions and with the clocks going back an hour, we settle into a reflective autumnal mode. Reflective of the strength in depth of clubs operating at Yorkshire Division Two level and this weekend was a huge testament to both Ripon and Castleford in fielding three full and competitive teams, when so often we have seen clubs, including Ripon, withdraw from fixtures due to lack of numbers of players. Well done to both clubs in their continuing efforts off the field to attract and retain players in sufficient numbers to make such “block fixtures” a welcome and sustainable part of the Rugby calendar.

Reflective also of the power of the written word and its occasional motivational effect on the reader. Who would have believed at this point last week, that a supposition that the intensity of the game that Ripon experienced this weekend, with the addition of two key forwards returning to the squad, might make the game more comfortable for Ripon; would have incited such publicity, or such a response from Castleford on the pitch. For the avoidance of doubt, “comfortable” was never intended to be another word for “easy”, but was merely suggestive of a less torrid time in the scrum than that experienced against Wath last week.

There were of course flashes of excitement and with three tries a piece, it was by no means a one-sided affair. What does however need to be explored is how Ripon were unable to come up with enough creativeness on the pitch to nail the game down, when the visitors were reduced at one point to 12 men. One could get drawn in to discussions as to the overall game management exercised by the referee, but the panache and frequency with which she wafted yellow cards at Castleford players, was something to behold. Any arguments Ripon may have as to the fairness of the refereeing decisions and their impact on the game, need to reflect on the fact that Castleford suffered the indignity of five yellow cards in total, to Ripon’s one and still no advantage was taken of the lengthy periods of play during which significant numbers of the opposition weren’t playing.

Ripon kicked off to the visitors and harassed their reception to the extent that there looked like a real opportunity to dominate from the start. Castleford however composed themselves and held resolute and forced a penalty for a Ripon player holding on in the tackle. At only three minutes into the game the penalty kick to touch from the Castleford Number 10 flew downfield and should have rung alarm bells as to his distance capability. The kick took the visitors up to the Ripon 22 metre line and their line out was won comfortably enough for the ensuing drive to swing in many directions before their Number 8 crashed over for an unconverted try to get the scoreboard into action.

Ripon fought back from the restart to move the ball through several phases and release the speedy back division as soon as possible. Leeming and Buckley counter attacked well and defensively the whole team stepped up to shut out the opposition. At 12 minutes, after some lively exchanges, Ripon were awarded a penalty, which Hooks kicked long into touch. The line out saw a clean take from Oates and a mini drive to offset the opposition. Once in the backs, the play drifted right, left and then back again, before Rob Nicholson took the credit for touching down from the final drive over the line to even the scores. Hooks floated the conversion in with ease.

At 19 minutes, a Castleford attacking kick was recovered by Nicholson to allow Ripon to counter through several hands, before Oates made a dashing break up the middle. His attempts to make the ball available were stifled by the defence and hooks stepped up to kick the penalty goal to increase Ripon’s lead. From there, play exchanged hands several times, with Castleford just edging the scrum contest to restrict Ripon’s attacking options.

From a probing kick from the visitors, Ripon sought to rebuild from defence. A well won line out by Britton, saw the home forwards drive sufficiently to create a decent angle for the touch kick. The forwards however, retained possession perhaps a bit too long before releasing a ball for Tombling to clear. The hastily attempted kick was charged down and let in the Castleford Inside Centre to nudge them in front again. The conversion unfortunately went the wrong side of the woodwork.

The exchanges for the rest of the half were fairly even apart from nearly the last ten minutes being spent with only 12 players on the Castleford side. Ripon benefitted marginally from the power play with two penalty kicks from Hooks, but Castleford to their credit, kept themselves in the game, with a late penalty goal to end the half ahead 13 – 15.

The second half saw much of the same really. Ripon attempted to attack out wide and were stifled by a well organised drift defence. The visitors did the same, but made it tell by playing their options well and scoring a further converted try and two penalty goals, both from around the 40 metre mark, to make Castleford look like they were doing more than enough to win the game. Ripon continued to try and exploit an increasingly steadying scrum and well-functioning line out to increase their attacking potential, but in most cases the Castleford defence held firm. Late on, Ripon really grasped the urgency of the situation and started picking up the pace. Further tries came from Davin Jones, cutting a brilliant line from his wing to the opposite side, converted by Hooks and Jake McRobert. The last few minutes of the game however, presented Ripon with a number of penalty opportunities, which if kicked, might have made the score line look considerably different.

Taking the bonus point defeat is yet another bitter pill to swallow, but at least it keeps the team in the running and keeps the Club well and truly in the middle of the league table.

Saturday 31st October sees a break from Yorkshire Division Two and perhaps the squad will enjoy joining the rest of the country in watching the Rugby World Cup final. The next formal outing will be Saturday 7th November v Old Grovians, in what promises to be an interesting and challenging first encounter in a number of years for both clubs.