1st XV Match Report - Saturday 28th October 2017

Not being distracted by pre-match hospitality requests, (the invitation from Hill Interiors, match day sponsors, must have got lost in the post); or touch judging duties, welcome back Noddy all is forgiven; the matter of the “one job” of writing a report based on what happened on the pitch, must seem to the uninitiated, a breeze. Unfettered by touch judge flag, rain, or too much Lasagne, and in mild, sunny, but breezy conditions, the stage was set for the match of the season (so far) at Mallorie Park. Thankfully the single sheet of A4 paper on which the occurrences of the day are recorded, were neither soaked, nor blown away.

Ripon, ever keen to ring the changes and blessed with a seemingly endless pool of quality players to step into the squad and step up to the challenges, re-introduced Dave Curry, Jonty Lister and the critically acclaimed Euan Findlay to the pack and recalled Ben Buckley, new daddy James Audsley-Beck and Rob Harrison to the back division. Confidence remained high for the retention of “Old Guards”: Patrick Whitaker, Mark “Grizzly” Sadler and Craig Wolloms. The defining nature of this squad is the ability for players of experience and inexperience to gel together seamlessly and for many players to adapt to playing out of their comfort zone, or even regular positions. Nothing can be more true than in the case of Harry Scurr, who stepped up to fill the massive void left by Richard Scull’s side-lining injury. Scurr looked a natural this week from the word go; he distributed the ball with precision; carried and recycled securely; defended like a Number 8 and when kicking from hand, dropped bombs at will with precision and impact. Unfortunately Harry was not nominated as man of the match, but made a huge impact and influence on the team’s performance.

Opting to receive the kick, play into the wind and up the slope in the first half, Ripon set out their stall to get the difficulties out of the way early on and test the opposition’s strength. Also testing out the new, white alternative strip, the Blues adopted a seasonally “ghostly” appearance as the whole team haunted the opposition into a performance that decried their position as league leaders and promotion hopefuls.

Ripon received the first kick off with confidence and played deep into the Yarnbury half from the start. Recycling effectively and keeping the passing short and sweet, Ripon retained possession for the first three minutes until a handling error gave the visitors their first chance of possession with a scrum put in. The mighty front row of Sadler, Wolloms and Dalby all but destroyed the visitors’ put in and set the scene for the rest of the day’s scrummaging, in which Yarnbury only had a reverse gear. Unfortunately and as is often the case when one side (Ripon) wants to play at a pace and intensity and the other (Yarnbury) seeks to gain control of things, some of the decision making by referees goes against the dominant side. It is fair to say that in the early exchanges, Ripon were exhibiting signs of emphatic and sustainable dominance. Yet contrary to that, a number of early penalty decisions were given against Ripon. Perhaps for trying too hard?

Thus after the initial dominance, Ripon found themselves penalised four times in as many minutes and gave the visitors a long range shot at goal, which fortunately missed. Thankfully the wind was badly misread and a kick that should have ended up in the Market Place, trimmed the grass neatly instead. Breaking out from the ensuing drop out, Ripon drove hard into the wind to take play back into the opposition’s half. A sterling effort by Gary Nicholson, Tom Leeming and finally Dom Dalby, saw the titanic Prop dispossessed in the tackle to release the Yarnbury Number 7 to pick and sprint through to the home line and open the scoring with a converted try to make it 0 – 7 after 7 minutes.

Undeterred, Ripon effectively chased and harassed the restart to regain possession with a scrum put in, just in the Yarnbury half. Striding purposely forward, the Ripon scrum travelled a full 10 metres before Nicholson picked up to feed Whitaker. In a well-rehearsed move involving both Wingers in a wide blind-side, Ben Buckley eased in to take on from Whitaker and then fed James Audsley-Beck outside at pace. Becky stepped his opposite number on the inside and with only the Full Back to beat, unselfishly offloaded to Buckley to open the scoring for Ripon. Whitaker coolly added the conversion to level the scores at 7 – 7.

The next 10 minutes just seemed all Ripon, with a completely dominant scrum and an effective line out. Yarnbury made the best out of their back pedalling scrum, with particular praise going to their Number 8, who remained a tower of strength throughout and their Outside Centre, who was extremely dangerous whenever near the ball and with two tries to his credit, a hugely impactful player.

The closing 10 minutes of the first half saw a more evenly matched display in open play, with Yarnbury creating more attacking options and defending more strongly against the Ripon attacking phases. At the 30 minute mark, the visitors pushed sufficiently into Ripon territory to take advantage of a penalty goal opportunity to take the score to 7 – 10. Having the lead again and with tails in the air, Yarnbury made the dying minutes of the half uncomfortable for the hosts, but thankfully not at the expense of a further score.

Ripon sought to play the conditions more effectively in the second half, by using the wind and slope to better advantage. Scurr kicked off the second half with a high bomb, ably chased by Leeming and Findlay and again Ripon looked to settle into the driving seat. After a successful series of phases, including good scrums and drives from the base through Gary Nicholson and Patrick Whitaker, Ripon found themselves in a good position to launch a string of attacks from first phase possession. From a Number 8 pick-up, Ripon handled quickly to the right and gifted James Audsley-Beck with his first try of the game after darting through a couple of bewildered defenders. With a favourable wind, the conversion by Whitaker was a monster at over 40 metres and deservedly took Ripon into the lead for the first time to 14 – 10.

Unfortunately, you don’t get the league leaders to simply roll over and play dead and so Yarnbury eased themselves back into the game and made life more difficult for Ripon. It was at the 18th minute of the second half that such counter pressure showed effectively and yet another Ripon attack broke down through sound defence. The result was an intercepted pass that saw the Yarnbury Number 13 again dance through the field to retake the lead for them with another converted try to take the score to 14 – 17.

Not allowing Ripon to settle from the restart, Yarnbury piled on the pressure to force more mistakes and more turnovers. At 22 minutes, a penalty to the visitors for Ripon holding on in the tackle, gave Yarnbury a penalty touch kick. Executing the line out catch and drive, as well as incurring further penalty advantage along the way, Yarnbury further increased their lead with another converted try to take the score to 14 - 24.

Not to be outdone and with not exactly a mountain to climb, Ripon fought back with some strong breaks from Leeming and Buckley, as well as solid hard yards made by Newcombe and Barker. Many other players embraced the “go forward” philosophy and critically important, was improved and better organised defensive work all round. This dogged team effort subdued many counter attacks and went on to secure good quality possession for Ripon. So with plenty of possession and more cohesive attacking play, Ripon edged back into the ascendancy and forced play closer to the visitors’ line. On the half hour mark of the second half, after a pacey break by Buckley, the defence was adjudged to be unfair at the breakdown and so Whitaker stepped up to slot over a penalty goal to take the score to 17 – 24.

With the score line narrowing, both teams stepped up their efforts to enforce, or reinforce the lead and both looked to be more creative in open play. The Ripon scrum held steadfast to the end, but the line out started to creak a little. That said, every player continued to give their all on the ball and in defence, to build up to a nail-biting finale.

Succumbing to more Yarnbury pressure and conceding a penalty in their own half, Ripon set themselves to defend a visitors’ line out just 10 metres from the goal line. The line out was not straight, so of course Ripon opted for the scrum. The initial shove gave Whitaker sufficient time to feed Rob Harrison, newly substituted for Audsley-Beck and watch him rip through the opposition to take play back up to the half way line. Pressure off momentarily, Ripon proceeded to retain possession more effectively and maximise benefit from ground gained.

With time perilously close to running out, Ripon continued to work hard on the ball and force defensive penalties. After two successive touch kicks and line out catch and drives, Ripon were at last in sniffing distance of the line. Through great concentration in retention and recycling, Ripon continued to press for the line and the reward finally came on the 40 minute mark with Dom Dalby crashing over from a creditable five metres to score Ripon’s third try. Whitaker added the conversion to level the scores again at 24 – 24 and further enhance his 100% kicking record in two games.

Playing an unbelievably long amount of injury time, Ripon held off all last ditch attempts by the opposition to change the score line. Ripon to their credit, tried their hardest to increase their score, but fate and refereeing decisions were against them. After five minutes of injury time added. Yarnbury forced a further penalty offence and attempted a final shot at goal. Whoever was in charge of the wind at that point did a marvellous job and despite a mighty thump, the gusty wind forced the ball wide to the right. At that point the final whistle was allowed and despite a somewhat flat feeling at drawing, the Ripon squad, club and supporters should take great comfort from this strong result against an as yet unbeaten side. Testament also to the strength in depth of the club at the moment and whilst it remains a challenge to field three teams on a regular basis and huge credit to the club officials and players who made that happen this week; there is great confidence that Ripon can keep on finding, retaining and developing quality players to keep the club’s aspirations afloat.

The down side if there is one, is that by securing a draw in this game, many other results have gone against Ripon to put the club in 8th position in Yorkshire Division Two. The continuation of this squad’s efforts will change that for sure.

Next Saturday, Ripon travel to newly promoted club, yet currently bolstering Yorkshire Division Two from 14th place; Halifax Vandals. This team is an unknown quantity for Ripon, but the intelligence shows that it is sure to be a test for the forwards to secure quality possession again and from which to further develop their increasingly exciting team patterns of play. Now we are into “daylight saving”, kick offs will be at the unearthly hour of 2.15pm from this weekend until the end of March. All supporters continue to be very welcome.