Match Report Saturday 23 January 2016 - Ripon 2xv - Ripon Rugby Union Football Club

After numerous weeks of bad weather, Ripon 2s finally managed to play a game. The side picked this week was a strong one for this rearranged Merit League fixture. We did lose 2 of our regular front rowers to the 1st team and Craig Sykes changed position from centre to flanker replacing Charlie Yates who has decided to learn how to cook a decent curry.

The game started with Ripon receiving the ball from kick off. Jonty Lister gathered the ball and made a few yards before being tackled. The ball was recycled quickly and then thrown down the young backline to make good yards. Bradford struggled to contain the away side and conceded a penalty just in front of the posts. Patrick Whitaker who we thought had brought his kicking boots (Hit the post twice in the game) made no mistake and put the away side 3-0 with only a few minutes gone.

In open play Ripon were very dangerous and started giving the home side a lot of problems deal with. Strong runs from Billy Burgin and Mark Greenwood sucked in the larger home side pack which allowed the backline marshalled by Patrick Whitaker to run their moves. Elliot Fearn benefited from this to score 2 tries which now makes him the top try scorer. 1 of these tries was converted.

Bradford Salem then showed why they were no pushovers showing good strength through their pack. They used this strength to punish Ripon in the scrum and lineouts. With only a few minutes of the half they did manage to score a penalty to make the half time score 3-15.

Ripon had played well in the 1st half scoring some good points. Bradford hadn't really looked a threat for the 1st 40 minutes. How things were about to change!

The second half started with a deep kick into Bradford’s half. The home side gathered the ball and started to use their big pack to make ground. With a superior lineout they caught and drove the ball from the 22 over the line to score a well deserved try. This was converted to make the score 10-15.

Again the home side pounded at Ripon’s line, however a stubborn defence ensured that they didnt get over. From a drive close to the line, Ripon forced a knock on by the home side. During the ensuing scrum, Jack Stiddard hurt his arm and had to go off. With no front row replacements the game had to go uncontested.

After a lenghty discussion between the Captains and the referee it was decided (by the referee) that Ripon had to play the remaining 25 minutes with 14 men! After looking at the league rules after the game this should not have happened. The prop who bet me £50 that he was in the right was nowhere to be seen after the game just like the gate staff at Moortown.

Anyway, Ripon just had to get on with it as there was nothing they could do. Suffice to say this had a huge effect on the game as Bradford scored 2 tries to make the score 20-15 with 6 minutes left.

Ripon weren’t going to take this lying down and started to show some fight and passion. After a series of tap penalties the ball was shipped from one side to the other. A 3 man overlap was then created on the right hand side by Jason Bell. Jason then threw the ball to captain Andrew Williamson who managed to smash through 2 would be tacklers to ground the ball and tie the match at 20-20. Patrick Whitaker was just short on the conversion.

The remaining few minutes was played out and this was to be the final score. 20-20

This was an excellent result for Ripon as Bradford had won all their home games up to this point. Hopefully they will bring front row replacements to Mallorie Park so that they don’t have to go to 14 men as well!

Next week the 2s are back at home versus league leaders Wharfedale 3s. Hopefully we will have our regular props back to make the pack a little stronger.

Dick of the Day was shared by Tom Beaumont and Jack Baker who thought they had scored a try 2 m from the line! Although Jack is adamant that he had nothing to do with it.