U13s battle through to Yorkshire Cup Semis

Ripon U13s have secured their place in the Yorkshire Cup semi final after a hard battle against Wetherby.

With the visitors winning the toss and playing with the considerable wind at their backs, the start of the match was deep in Ripon's 22. With the wind too strong to kick clear, Ripon had to keep the ball in hand and make the hard yards. Some powerful breaks and good team work resulted in Ripon working their way into the Wetherby 22 and a flurry of conceded penalties by Wetherby allowed Ripon to attack the try line. Strong defence saw Hamish Mainey, Ted Wainwright and Evan Rees all denied scores over the try line, deemed to be held up. However, try machine Harry Hill eventually punished the infringements by breaking through for Ripon's first try.

Playing into the wind Ripon yet again found themselves deep in their own 22 defending from the kick off. However a Wetherby scrum was won against the head by Nathan Fraser helped by the power of the rest of the huge front five of Luca Lombardi, Max Bridge, Matthew Houseman and Dylan Hudspeth.
With the ball won Mainey fed Hill coming across the blind slide and Harry Hill used his power, pace and a lovely handoff to evade the defence and then raced 80 meters to score under the posts.

With some huge tackles from Michael Sorby, Max Bridge and Soloman Fiengold, Ripon secured the ball and it found it's way out to Harry Allen on the right wing. Harry's strong run was stopped just inside the Wetherby half but the entire pack bound on to the resulting maul and drove into the opposition 22. No points came from this but it was an impressive piece of team play.

Wetherby hit back and had a lovely passage of play resulting in a try of their own just before half time.

Ted Wainwright scored Ripon's third from another penalty infringement in the ruck. A quick tap saw Wainwright bundle his way through a couple of defenders. Brought down just short of the line he had the presence of mind to immediately stretch out and placed the ball on the line.

Ripon's forth came via an evasive Connor Stout run. He was eventually stopped 10 meters out but Evan Rees was on hand to take the offload and powered through the defence to score.

Cole Potts showed his pace on the left wing racing 50 meters before being caught by a last ditch tackle. Wetherby turned the ball over but pressure and massive tackles from Connor Stout and Harry Hill resulted in a Ripon scrum. Ted Wainwright picked up from the base and beat the defence to score again.

Ethan McMurray came off the bench and impressed with some great runs, nearly getting away down the right wing before being tackled into touch. He also made a lovely charge down then secured the ball.
Oliver Williams was safe under the high kicks, despite the wind and made some great darting runs out of defence.
Ben Rutter showed his versatility coming on to the flank and making some big tackles.
Titus Baker showed good power, running back a couple of defensive kicks, presenting the ball well to ensure possession.
Oliver Rockey came off the bench and made his mark with a number of strong runs down the left wing.

In the dying seconds of the game Harry Hill broke through to get his hat trick from just inside the Wetherby 22. Final score 38-5

Tries:
Harry Hill (3)
Ted Wainwright (2)
Evan Rees

Conversions:
Harry Hill (4)