In near perfect conditions and in front of a sizeable and very vocal home crowd, Ripon missed out on a win by the narrowest of margins and had to content themselves with yet another losing bonus point to keep them off the bottom of the division. With a hastily rearranged side after a last minute pull out, Ripon resolved to take to the field strongly and demonstrate team work and loyalty to the Club’s three year plan.

With a spirited defence and a keenness to attack through all phases, it looked in the first half like Knottingley’s game to lose and but for their poor discipline, the score line could have looked a lot different. With a two yellow cards shown to the visitors, it was an indication of their frustration with Ripon’s competitiveness and determination to stop Knottingley from running away with the game. That said, a win is a win and the visitors fought hard to maintain their lead throughout the game and keep Ripon in the chasing position.

The game started well for the visitors with a period of sustained pressure from the kick off. A penalty goal attempt at five minutes went wide and an offence from the 22 metre drop out saw the visitors maintain their pressure with a well work move from the base of their scrum. A slick handling move saw their Inside Centre feed from the Number 8 and score under the posts. The conversion gave Knottingley seven points within as many minutes.

Play evened out after that and at 15 minutes, enigmatic Half Back Bob Whitaker took the first of his three place kicks to take his personal points tally past the 30 mark for the season with a penalty goal. Not allowing Ripon any slack, the visitors responded at the end of the first quarter with a further converted try to turn around with a commanding 11 point lead.

As has been the case recently, Ripon came out of the blocks looking to dominate the second half, which they won convincingly by two tries to one. As has also been the case recently, the second half resurgence simply wasn’t enough to take the game to a win and the badly needed three points. Evening up the tight play, Ripon took sensible advantage of missing visitor forwards due to infringements and pressured the Knottingley scrum on a number of occasions to set up some threatening attacks. Notable in their commitment to chasing kicks and counter attacking were youngsters Joe Duffield and Ben Buckley, both of whom showed maturity and confidence beyond their years.

Bob Whitaker opened the second half scoring for Ripon with a well taken penalty goal and pretty much from the restart, the visitors pressed back for another, this time unconverted try. At the 70 minute mark, Joe Mpyana went on one of his now characteristic stop-start attacking runs designed to wrong-foot the defence. Then using his blistering pace, Mpyana powered over for a try in the corner, just out of Whitaker’s range.
Sustaining the pressure, Ripon this time pressed Knottingley from the restart and camped in the visitor’s 22 metre area for the next few minutes. After some bludgeoning forward play, lock Iain Barker powered over and with his mighty reach, touched down for Ripon’s second try and the reality of a losing bonus point. The conversion by Whitaker was a formality. The last few minutes of the game consisted of Ripon’s desperate efforts to take the score line to a win. Knottingley’s defence however held strong and a frustrating one point separated to the two sides at the end of a hard fought contest. .

This weekend Ripon are back on the road again, travelling to play Yorkshire Two debutantes Leeds Medical and Dental Students. Whilst the result at Weetwood against the struggling students is expected to be a formality for Ripon, this will be a severe test of fitness and finishing, as well as an opportunity to start and sustain a game on their own terms. Ripon will also focus on team work, team spirit and mutual commitment and respect from players to make a positive impact on their playing performance. From this game until the end of March, Saturday kick offs will be at 2.15. All travelling support is very welcome.