Despite the glorious weather and near perfect pitch conditions, there was no ray of sunshine for Ripon as they plunged to their third defeat in as many games. Ripon played like a team, safe in the knowledge that their mid-table position is secure and Old Crossleyans played as if their lives and livelihoods depended on it.

Ripon made a few changes to the team, but the recall of stalwart Centre Mark Spilman and talented Wing Tom Leeming, were never going to weaken the side. Starting Jacob McRobert at Fly Half looked to be an exciting prospect and starting Ben Pilling on the other Wing was a good call based on form and potential. With the pack largely the same apart from the recall of Dom Butler from Centre to Flanker, there was always going to be an effective ball winning platform.

With possession plentiful and confidence in playing to the team’s strengths and the good pitch, this was Ripon’s game to lose and they did. Overall, Ripon failed to match the visitors in their passion and energy to win. At times, decisions were questionable and tactics not quite right, but it was a clear case of the opposition wanting to win more than the hosts. A shame, as the effort put in by the squad in the first half of the season and the tenacity shown in reach and holding on to fourth place in the division, just seemed to fizzle out. The squad can do better and needs to just get back into the ambition and believing mode that carried them so well earlier. That said, with three tries apiece, both sides sought to play and Ripon did show what they were capable of with occasional flashes of brilliance.

The visitors kick off was returned with style by Plant, who set of on one his now customary bullocking runs. Taking play to the heart of the Crossleyans’ half, Ripon pounded away for the first ten minutes, with the hard yards being made by Plant and Dalby. With three penalties in succession, all of which went for touch kicks and line outs, as Ripon were seeking to establish their forward dominance early on.

At the ten minute mark, the visitors secured a penalty themselves for Ripon holding on in the tackle and were able to clear their lines. The following line out saw Crossleyans press up to the Ripon 5 metre line, where an attempted interception was adjudged a deliberate knock on and so the visitors opened the scoring with a penalty goal.

Ripon fought back to regain possession from the restart and saw Plant involved in two more big carries. After a couple of phases, Dom Dalby burst loose to charge just over 20 metres towards the line. With just the Full Back to beat and a clear mis-match size wise, Dalby did the decent thing and fixed the defender to offload perfectly to Scott McAra to cross over for Ripon’s first try between the posts. Tim Tombling added the conversion and nudged Ripon further in front.

The second quarter of the game saw the visitors increasingly more creative in attack and resilient in defence and prevented Ripon from scoring any further, but adding two unconverted tries and a penalty goal, to take the half time score to an uncomfortable 7 – 16.

Ripon started the second half with the same intensity as the first and were able to sustain some productive phases of play. At 12 minutes, Tom Leeming fielded a long kick out from the defence and through a fine individual effort crossed over to close the gap to four points difference. Tombling’s conversion attempt just didn’t have the legs to increase the score further.

Crossleyans hit back again and pressed the home line. An indiscretion gave Ripon a penalty and opportunity to clear their lines. From the line out just inside the home 22, McRobert sought to chip the flat defence, but a cruel interception gifted the visitors’ right Wing with a clear run in for their third try, which went unconverted.

After a few minutes of relatively innocuous play, Ripon stepped up the pace again and brought Leeming into action for another powerful run, which resulted in his second try of the game to take Ripon to within a score of the opposition. Any further hope of success however, was snuffed out by the visitors increasing their grip on the game. Ripon’s fate was sealed by two long range penalty goals from the visitors, the last of which was a mighty effort from the half way line and on the stoke of full time.

The score line of 17 – 27 was a fair refection of the visitors’ desire to win and we wish them all the best in their fight to get out of the relegation zone.

Next week, Ripon travel to Barnsley, with a hope of regaining some pride and going into the final three games of the season with a return to winning ways. All support welcome as usual and a reminder that kick off will be at 3.00pm.