1st XV Match Report - Saturday 24th February

On another bright, but chilly afternoon, Ripon travelled to Apperley Bridge confident of a further decent performance and even possibly a win. However, with the unexpected loss of Dalby before the game and a hastily re-arranged front row, this quickly turned into a match best forgotten. Despite the valiant efforts of the rest of the pack and the talented back division, it was the powerful Grovians’ scrum that destroyed Ripon’s attempts to secure decent first phase possession. Had the line out not been as effective, Ripon would have struggled to gain any useable ball at all. Also, after such a lively start, the lack of scrum ability had a deepening effect on Ripon as practically every phase of play ended up with a scrum and a lost ball. The impact on morale was palpable and the effect on Ripon’s exciting back division was even more devastating as options dried up.

Apart from the loss of Dalby, a couple of other changes were made due to planned unavailability. Making a welcome return to the Wing was James Audsley-Beck, with Josh Seal starting at Full Back. In the pack, Tom Gilchrist stepped in for Dalby and Matty Taylor started at Flanker. Beefing up the bench was the subtle blend of youth and experience made up from Dom Butler, Taylor Senior and the evergreen Dan Watson.
Ripon received the opening kick-off and cleared to touch effectively. The ensuing home line out was won by the visitors and that set the tone for some decent counter attacking play. After a couple of phases, play ground to a halt and Ripon were to suffer the indignity of their first scrum put-in. Back-pedalling at a rate of knots was the order of the day from then on and whatever Ripon tried to do from the scrum failed to gain any momentum. Harry Scurr and Euan Findlay did however do their level best to rescue the situation and with ball in hand did significant damage in open play.

What followed was very much a game of two halves, with Ripon attacking strongly in the first and scoring two fine tries. At six minutes, Whitaker took a penalty kick to touch and the following line out saw quick hands release Audsley-Beck on one of his blistering runs before being brought down after 40 metres.

At 15 minutes, a home attack ended with a poorly judged kick, which Seal fielded and set off up-field. Euan Findlay joined to handle for his first contribution, before releasing Harrison to make further ground at pace. Findlay was there again at the final tackle to cross the line for the opening score of the game. Bob Whitaker added the conversion for Ripon to take the lead at 0 – 7.

From the restart a miscommunication led to a knock on by Ripon and a scrum to Grovians. Quickly up on the attack, Findlay repossessed the ball to set Tom Graham off on a characteristic charge. Again Findlay was on hand to take the ball on from the breakdown and scampered in for his second try in as many minutes. With Whitaker’s conversion taking the score to 0 – 14, a decent result looked on the cards for Ripon. Grovians countered at 25 minutes with a penalty goal for the first of many scrum infringements to reduce the deficit to 3 – 14. The hosts then pressed their way further into the game at 35 minutes with a pushover try from a 5 metre scrum, the conversion taking the score to 10 – 14, where it remained up to half time.

The second half saw the hosts gain more advantage from their forward power and better interpretation of the refereeing decisions. It didn’t help as Ripon took their penalty count into double figures for the first game in over a month and suffered the further indignity of three players being yellow carded for repeat offences. Given the plentiful possession, the hosts still made hard work of their scoring opportunities and a solid defensive display with only 14 men on the pitch for much of the half, saw Ripon hold them to two converted tries.

Ripon’s only response of the half was a Whitaker penalty goal to take the score to a losing bonus point level of 24 – 17. Ripon did pick up the pace late on in the game, but were unable to convert pressure into any more points.

Hopefully next week a full complement of personnel will be present and enable a more balanced team performance.
Next Saturday, Ripon entertain Halifax Vandals, who will be looking to gain a double win over the Blues in their efforts to claw their way out of the relegation zone. Ripon will need to dig deep to turn in a good enough performance to ensure their own survival in Yorkshire Two. All support very welcome and with spring in the air, kick offs now revert to 3.00pm.