In the shadow of the Angel of the North, the iconic structure that demonstrates the power and creativity of Northern industry, Ripon systematically destroyed their opposition in a stunning display of patience, resilience, teamwork and robust application of the basics. In gloriously bright and warm conditions, with a sizeable crowd courtesy of the hosts’ annual beer and cider festival, Ripon ran in a nine Try demonstration of “practice makes perfect”, complimented by a 100% kicking effort from Player-Coach Mikey Bray with his nine Conversions. The Angel was certainly not looking over its locals on this day.

Ringing the changes somewhat from the previous week’s friendly outing at Darlington, this selection was more circumspect, with several unavailabilities due to holidays and injuries. The 26-man squad retained that all important balance of youth and experience, with senior and club debuts for Jacob Drane and James Pearce respectively. Drane following on in time honoured club tradition of taking to the field with his father Owen – time served senior Scrum Half, turning his hand now to coaching and still showing the youngsters how things are done.
Despite fielding a smaller in stature, as well as numbers, squad than the hosts, The Blues dominated all phases of play and used a solid set piece in both scrums and line outs, to launch some text book perfect attacking play, as well as some inventive counter attacking. Gateshead refused to lay down at any point and continued to compete strongly in all areas of play, but simply couldn’t live with Ripon’s pace, fitness and adherence to an uncomplicated but very effective game plan.

Gateshead opened the game with a lofty kick off, fielded expertly by Houseman, who went on to be the ace kick off receiver for the rest of the game, and set the tone for attacking everything the opposition sent Ripon’s way. From the breakdown after Anderson and Slator carried forward, the ball went into touch and the hosts looked set to regroup. Their quickly taken line out however, was stolen by Britton and quick hands to the left saw Barrett cover several metres before releasing Charles Robinson to weave his way through the defence to open the scoring for Ripon with a fine individual Try, with less than two minutes played. Bray made no mistake of the first of his nine Conversions to make the score 0 - 7.

The next few exchanges were evenly contested, with the hosts throwing their bulkier players into the fray, with little effect. Britton was instrumental in demolishing several attacks and Perez and Anderson were hot on his heels with the big tackles and counter plays. The first quarter petered out unremarkably as far as the score-line was concerned, but created an air of excitement in the visitors’ camp that something special was brewing and it was only a matter of time before it broke loose.

The second quarter saw Ripon’s finest period of the game, in which four Converted Tries were scored unopposed and the visitor’s confidence grew, as did their competence in possession and resilience in defence. Stoddart took the scoreboard up a peg with a finely crafted Try after Marston took a tap Penalty and fed Woolfenden to make some ground before unleashing the Hooker for the final two metres to touch down. A moment about Woolfenden here – an absolute powerhouse in defence with text book tackles and a machine in attack, with his stealthy running lines and precision passing. With Bray’s conversion and score at 0 – 14, Ripon’s confidence grew, as did their adherence to playing strengths and shapes, worked on in training.

Next on the scoreboard was Perez, a welcome returnee from a sabbatical and slotting easily into the Number 8 berth. From his base of scrum pick, Perez fed Marston, who through quick hands with Powell, another lynch pin in Ripon’s back line, linked with Woolfenden again to make the hard yards. From the tackle, Marston was on hand to pop the ball back to Perez, who crashed over for Ripon’s third Try. Bray took the score to 0 – 21 and all was looking rosy for The Blues. All apart from some elementary handling errors, which kept Gateshead in the game through a succession of scrum put ins.

Next up, was Woolfey’s finest moment in which he dominated all phases of play and scored two tries in quick succession. The first at 37 minutes played, saw Ripon uncharacteristically lose a line out and the opposition launch a counter attack down the left touchline. Winger Junior put in the crunching tackle to stop the movement and Woolfenden picked up the loose ball and sauntered virtually unopposed, the full 50 metres to touch down for Ripon’s fourth Try, Bray adding the honours to take the score to 0 – 28. Undeterred, Through another Houseman kick off reception, Anderson carried for a few metres before feeding Slator. Marston was quick to the breakdown to feed Bray, then Barrett. Barrett seeing Junior out wide, threw the long pass for him to run on to. Faced with limited options, Junior kicked ahead infield for Woolfenden to chase and collect the bouncing ball for his second and Ripon’s fifth Try. Bray’s Conversion ended the scoring for the half at 0 – 35.

Some strong words in the home camp at half time, took effect from the second half kick off and the hosts entered the fray with more conviction. A Penalty at 7 minutes in saw a touch kick. With their considerable bulk and their first successful line out in The Blues’ danger zone, Gateshead used their catch and drive to trundle towards the visitors’ line. Stout defence halted the juggernaut, but the hosts’ presence of mind to spin the ball wide through three passes, saw their first honours with a Try under the posts. The conversion took the score to 7 – 35.
Back in the driving seat, Ripon rang the changes with Pilkington dropping into the Scrum Half berth, Bray moving to Full Back and Drane looking younger than ever, rejuvenating his 1st XV career at Stand Off. At 15 minutes into the half, a solid Ripon scrum saw Pilkington feed Drane Snr, who showed some of his old magic with a couple of jinks and sidesteps to break the defence and open the way for Pilkington to finish the move with Ripon’s sixth Try. Bray took the score to 7 – 42 and all was looking desperate for the hosts.

Next up and into the final trimester of Ripon’s scoring spree, which went all Slator’s way as far as the Tries were concerned, was at 18 minutes after yet another kick off reception counter attack. This time Lees caught the ball on the full and after making a few yards, fed Pilkington, who writhed his way through virtually the whole opposition over some 50 metres. Running out of steam and with the defence regrouping, Marston fed Slator on the inside, to add Ripon’s seventh Try and Bray’s conversion to take the score to 7 – 49.

At this point, when all appeared to be lost for Gateshead, against the run of play, they added to the respectability of their score-line with a well worked counter attack and a further converted Try to take the score to 14 – 49.

The last 10 minutes however, belonged to Ripon and despite the heat and fatigue taking its toll, The Blues kept up their game plan and focused on retaining quality possession and doing the simple things right. At 25 minutes into the half, Ripon’s line out in the home 22 saw an emphatic catch and drive for 10 metres, from which Slator launched himself to bag his second and Ripon’s eighth Try. Brays’ metronomic kicking style took his personal tally for the game to 16 points and Ripon to 14 – 56.

The icing on the cake came for Ripon and Slator in the 33rd minute, when Junior started a counter attack from a Hosts’ defensive clearance. After making significant yardage, Junior fed the ever-present Slator for him to run in his hat-trick winning and match sealing third Try. Bray’s final conversion was a formality to take the final score to 14 – 63.

A strong all-round performance from Ripon. Not perfect by any means, but plenty to work on in the next week and some interesting dilemmas for the selectors in determining the first league match’s starting line-up. Also, will there be enough players available on the first Saturday in September, to field two full sides? Only the players can decide that.

Next Saturday, the newly aligned Northern Division, Counties 2 Yorkshire season kicks off for real, with a home game versus North Ribblesdale on Saturday 3rd September. Again, all support at Mallorie Park very welcome for the 3.00pm kick off.
For any players reading this who have not been party to pre-season training or available for the games, it’s never too late to get back into playing ways, so do get in touch and participate. We need as many players as possible to sustain our playing strength and league aspirations. Every little helps! Let’s make it a season to be proud of and take the Club further forward.