A very unhappy New Year was the unfortunate order of the day for Ripon after they shrugged off the excesses of the festive season and got on with the business of the second half of the Rugby season. Such is the community and family focus of this club, that unfortunately the training opportunities made available for the squad during the beak, were poorly attended and any hope of maintaining pre-break momentum or fitness, were dashed at Mallorie Park on Saturday, by a spirited West Leeds side, currently and deservedly third from top of the league.

Fitness, match preparation and sheer will to win, were not evident this week, though a gritty and instinctive performance defensively throughout, prevented a capitulation and kept the score at a reasonable level. Holding their own in the set piece and making telling tackles and turning over possession when necessary, this was an effective, display of “backs to the wall Rugby”, but in which Ripon never really looked like scoring a try. Hopefully lessons learned will help Ripon incrementally build on the good aspects of their game and eliminate the negatives. A full commitment to squad training however, has to be a key objective from now on though. The team cannot get through the next three months on reputation and aspirations alone. Sheer hard team work is what is needed and hopefully the players understand what is needed and will rally to the call.

A fine day with little wind to speak of, in front of a sizeable crowd (on the touchline thankfully) courtesy of Bishop Monkton Patrons and a consistent referee, created an environment for entertaining play, but it was not to be unfortunately. There were of course the usual flashes of brilliance from the likes of Harrison on his return from quite a lay off; Bell, solid in defence and counter-attack and Buckley, who tried his best to create something out of so little in the way of decent possession. Without consistent support for opportunist line breaks and high levels of off the ball work rates, attacks petered out or ended in penalties being awarded to the opposition.

Despite some fearless individual efforts, no breaks were supported substantially enough however for the killer blows to be dealt and no Ripon initiated attacks were executed thoroughly enough to threaten the visitors’ line throughout the game. The closest Ripon came to scoring was an uncharacteristically missed penalty from Bob Whitaker on the four minute mark and a well struck penalty by the same on the final whistle of the first half. This to enable Ripon to turn around 3 – 15 down, having conceded two tries, one converted and a penalty in the half. Worthy of note for the visitors was their audacious plan to play what must (no offence to the individual concerned, honestly) be the oldest, shortest, fattest and slowest Inside Centre in the League, if not the Division. Touching the ball twice in the game, he showed a hint of a dummy to put his Winger away for a scintillating break early on and then using the tried and tested “show the ball one way and let the belly drift the other way” technique, outsmarted (and outweighed) the mesmerised defence to score under the posts. Oh if only our big boys had such skills!

The second half was altogether a less lively affair, than the first. The full forty minutes was pretty much a war of attrition as both sides beefed up their defensive plays and snuffed out each other’s attempted attacks. A further try and penalty goal to West Leeds were the only scores of the half and whilst desperate to gain a winning bonus point, West Leeds ran out of time before further points came. Scrappy play led to a total of four yellow cards, one to Ripon and three to West Leeds and yet neither side seemed able to capitalise on the power play scenario.

The next week sees Ripon travel away to League runners up; West Park Leeds and then a home game against fourth placed Barnsley on the 17th January. Without wishing to harp on, consistency and commitment must be the buzz words for the rest of the season, with hopes pinned on making the most of who is available to play for the squad and who wants to see Ripon return to winning ways.

A general call to arms is necessary now before it gets too late. This weekend saw the Cub field three sides and whilst they all lost, it was a strong testament to the pulling power of the club, its history and reputation to put so many players of such a range of abilities in the Club jerseys. Let’s see more of “three team Saturdays”, more of commitment to training and more games won across the board.