Ripon 2xv Hornblowers v York 3

The 2nd team travelled to York with a mixture of experience and youth. Making his debut was young Jack Tart, stepping up from the colts and captaining the side was the ever present Craig Wolloms. With the Director of Rugby, Ian Hassel, watching the game it was an ideal opportunity for players to compete for a first team place.

The game started at a quick pace with Ripon putting into practice a number of set moves and running plays perfected in training. The coach, Paul Blood had asked for a bonus point win which was delivered after 30 minutes with tries from Marcus Hockey, Mark Rees, Elliot Fearn and Mark Greenwood. With another try from Marcus Hockey and conversions from the boot of Patrick Whitaker meant that Ripon were 33:0 up at half time.

Despite the score York showed tremendous team spirit and narrowly missed out in a couple of their own tries.

The second half saw a number of changes to players and within a few minutes Jake Botting broke through the defensive line to score a great team try. The conditions definitely suited the Ripon style of open play with another 5 tries following, 2 by Elliot Fearn and another for Marcus Hockey to give both player a hat trick each. Also getting on the try score sheet was Tom Leeming, Patrick Whitaker and Dranie.

Again York kept fighting and were rewarded with a well worked try mid way through the second half. For Ripon you can only say that sometimes all the training and practice comes together in a single game, unfortunately for York it was today. Every Ripon player had a good game with special mentions for Tom Leeming at fullback for his breaking runs and Marcus Hockey at No 8 who received a well deserved Man of the Match. It has definitely given the DOR a lot to think about and make the next selection session interesting