So many ways to describe this game, most of them clichés. A game of two halves; so near, yet so far; nearly but not quite and so it goes on. Key though, was the testament to Ripon’s strength in depth and the ability of the squad to absorb eight changes from the previous week’s line up and still put in a creditable performance.

With a number of players unavailable this week, the squad was rearranged to bring in some new blood as well as drawing on the club’s wealth of experience. Everyone stepped up to the mark; whether playing in their natural position or not and showed the required levels of belief and courage to give the league leaders Moortown, something to think about.

In a display of awesome scrummaging power and robust defence, Ripon did much to stifle Moortown’s creativity and the attacking flair of their Antipodean imports. Despite being denied much possession during the first half, Ripon competed well for everything and apart from two really soft tries, put up a sterling counter to everything the visitors could throw at them.

From the kick off, Ripon were under pressure from Moortown, who looked like they aimed to spend the entire 40 minutes in the home half and they pretty much did just that. Despite Ripon destroying Moortown’s first two scrums, the visitors were able to launch an attack within two minutes. Quick hands through the visitors’ backs saw their Right Wing catch the defence flat footed; then with sufficient space to chip over the last man, win the race to touch down. fortunately the conversion attempt went wide, but this prompted Ripon to consolidate their defensive alignment.

Whilst not able to break out their half, Ripon pieced together some strong plays, with Plant and Newcombe carrying well over the hard yards and Bell making some strong runs. Unfortunately though, at sixteen minutes, Moortown scrambled the ball away from their back-pedalling scrum, to press right at pace. A simple switch move in the centre field saw their Full Back come in on a fine line and leave everyone standing, wondering where he came from. The converted try then nudged Moortown further ahead, but didn’t give any indication that Moortown were any more than lucky to get their two scores up to then.

The next twenty minutes was a hard slog for both sides, with Ripon still not able to leave their half. There was however a buoyancy in Ripon’s play and an increasing frustration set in with the visitors, as their scrum continued to crumble and Ripon became more ambitious in attack. A cruel blow however, was dealt by the visitors on the stroke of half time, when a successful line out was driven a few yards by Moortown. A shift in the angle of attack, saw their Right Wing appear wide out to the left to score the visitor’s third and most deserved try. The conversion attempt failed and so the sides went into the break with Ripon 0 – 17 down.

Undeterred by the deficit, Ripon went into the second half with a passion and determination to show the opposition what they were capable of. The scrum was more powerful than ever and the line out increasingly more successful and through these key areas of forward domination, Ripon effectively stopped Moortown from playing.

At ten minutes into the half, Ripon sustained sufficient pressure on the visitors to be offered a succession of line outs following clearance kicks. The effective catch and drive was working well and gaining good yards. So when a driving maul was heading for the Moortown line at pace and was unceremoniously dragged down, the referee had no doubt about awarding the penalty try. Hooks added the conversion to put Ripon on the scoreboard.

From a similar situation at 18 minutes into the half, Ripon took a penalty kick to touch, in order to exploit their strength again. This time the catch and drive went all the way, allowing Jack Stiddard to crash over for Ripon’s second try. Hooks again made no mistake with the conversion.

The final quarter of the game was pretty much all Ripon, doing everything apart from score. Attack after attack was thrown at the visitors and their defence was tested to the extreme. Ripon were unfortunate to not gain any further points, but they were there for the taking and whilst a win would have been the icing on the cake, a losing bonus point from such a close game against promotion hopefuls, is a great result.

Next up on the fixture list is an away trip to Old Crossleyans, where Ripon will be hoping to return to winning ways.