1st XV Match Report Saturday 1st April 2017

With a “Wrestling themed” coach trip, Ripon were keen, not only to regain some composure and credibility in their league status, but also, have some fun, both on the field, where they hoped to grapple for success. With a distinct advantage of the game being shifted to the second stream pitch, due to priority of the main stadium being given to the ground sharing football club, Ripon sought to play on the host’s low morale. What played out thereafter and to rerun a much overused cliché this season; was very much a game of two halves. Barnsley won the first half despite some creative work by Ripon and perhaps a couple of “unlucky bounces”, but Ripon turned the screw in the second half to run out worthy winners.

Barnsley never looked like capitulating to a submission, but the sustained pressure from Ripon, despite having two players knocked down, which resulted in them being taken to hospital following falls during the game, told on both sides. The home team seeking to capitalise on the disruption to Ripon’s flow and Ripon coping psychologically with the loss of two key players.

Ripon made a couple of changes to the team, but the recall of James Audsley-Beck to the Wing and Charlie Yates at Flanker sought to boost the side’s attacking potential. Scull returned to the fray at Fly Half and Skipper Newcombe stepped across to Loose Head Prop, to cover Plant’s absence.

Barnsley kicked off and through indecision at the reception, immediately put pressure on the visitors and held them in their own half for the first five minutes. Breaking the strangle hold, Ripon countered through Barker and Findlay, making good progress in open play. Unfortunately the break out was short lived and the hosts regained possession sufficiently to get within a 40 metre penalty goal attempt, which went wide.

After the drop out, Ripon attacked strongly through Findlay again, but a crushing tackle on Scull, saw the ball spilled to allow the home Right Wing a free run in from 60 metres to score an unconverted try.

The rest of the first half was much like that. The scrums were evenly contested, as were the line outs and neither side was able to establish any form of dominance. Ripon attempted to use their possession well, but some unfortunate errors, saw the balled spilled and Barnsley exploiting the opportunities to score two further tries, one of which was converted, to no reply. Ripon did put in some strong phases of play and despite a couple of minor errors, looked capable of settling into a decent groove.

Strong performances in the first half from Dalby in the tackle and running lines from Scull, Findlay and Gilchrist, saw the hosts constantly looking at how they needed to defend against the inevitable Ripon onslaught.

Not unhappy with a 17 – 0 deficit at half time, Ripon took stock and established some key objectives for the second half - to score more points and win the game.

The second half started strongly, with Ripon camping in the home half and using the wind, sun and slope to great advantage. The pressure paid off at 14 minutes, when Richard Scull started and ended a sniping attack to score a fine touch down under the posts, which he duly converted.

There then followed a solid twenty minutes of attrition between both sides, slogging it out to see who would cave first. At just past the half hour, a sustained attack of forward picks, saw the sprightly Charlie Yates wrong foot the defence to dart over for Ripon’s second try. Scull added the conversion.

The final few minutes was all Ripon, with everything but the kitchen sink being thrown into the fray. Many phases of attacks were set up and repulsed until at the 40th minute, Euan Findlay did what only he can do best. Setting off on a line of running that only he knew where was leading to and impossible to support, Euan darted, danced, shimmied and shrugged off tackles, to touch down in the far right hand corner. Despite being safe in the knowledge that the try itself put Ripon in the lead for the first time in the game, Richard Scull calmly slotted over the 45 metre conversion from the touchline.

Once Ripon received the restart with only injury time left to play, the ball was cleverly retained until the final whistle and a fitting end of a well earned victory after a sterling performance.

Next week, Ripon play their last home match of the season and host Leodiensians in a game that is critical for them to avoid relegation. We anticipate a fiercely contested and passionate encounter with our old friends and rivals, but also hope that Ripon return to a sustainable pattern of winning ways. All support welcome as usual for the 3.00pm kick off.