Yarnbury 3xv AWAY

Ripon 2xv made the short journey to Horsforth to play Yarnbury 3s with 20 players from a mix of regular 2nd and 3rd team players due to unavailabilities. There were debuts for Stew Skinner, Marcus Hockey, Tom Ranson, Andy Batton and Ben Piling.

The game started off with some determined defence by Ripon; however they did concede two early penalties in front of the posts. One of which was converted to give the home side a 3-0 lead.

The first half was littered by mistakes by both sides. With Ripon’s tackling causing mistakes from the home side and with a number of handling mistakes stopping Ripon in its tracks.

Yarnbury then scored a try from a good run from a forward to score a try near the posts. This was converted. Ripon then gave away another penalty which allowed Yarnbury to stretch their lead to 13-0.

Things were not going Ripon’s way, and with the half coming to a close another try was scored by Yarnbury.

HT 18 – 0

During halftime Coach Andy Rickard made a tactical change in the backs moving veteran George Campbell to 10 and Jamie Richardson to his more natural position of 9. This seemed to galvanise Ripon with Campbell using his boot on a number of occasions to turn the big Yarnbury pack around. Yarnbury did get an early penalty to make it 21-0. Ripon should have responded with a penalty of their own, however Dan Watson somehow missed it from in front of the posts!

Ripon were now playing some good rugby and realised that if they got the ball quickly down the backline that they would get some points on the board. This proved the case when Andy Batton went through a number of Yarnbury players to score under the posts.

Then from a scrum, Andy Batton picked up the ball and again went through a number of players to score his 2nd try. George Campbell converting both. 21-14

Yarnbury at this point knew that they were in trouble. Ripon were now dominating the lineout and stringing good phases of play together.

However in the last 5 minutes a lineout steal from Ripon was driven forward by Mark Greenwood, his attempted pass was unluckily intercepted by a Yarnbury Forward which allowed them to score another try. 26-14.

Ripon then played the last 5 minutes close to the Yarnbury try line. However after 3 5m Scrums could not force their way over. The Referee blew his whistle for the end of the game to give Yarnbury the win.

FT 26 – 14

Although the score line was not what Ripon wanted, this is a game which could have and possibly should have been won. Hopefully more players will be available next week to allow the 2s and 3s to put out both teams next week. A big thank you for all the 3rd team players that stood up today and showed that they are all capable of playing 2nd team rugby!.

MOM – Andy Batton

DOD – Dan Watson

Team: 1.Horacio 2. Greenwood 3.Storesdale 4.Hockey 5.Baldwin 6.Williamson A.Connor 8.Batton 9.Coates 10.Richardson 11.Findlay 12.Hooley 13.Hudson 14.Pilling 15.Williamson S 16.Skinner 17.Ranson 18.Watson 19.Campbell 20.Tyreman

Trys – 2 x Batton

Conversions – 2 x Campbell