Like the old adage about the “Curate’s egg”, The Blues kicked off the new season in earnest, by hosting a friendly versus Level 7 outfit Peterlee & Horden from the newly reconfigured North East League and put in a display that was good in parts. Despite a strong start and a nail-biting finish, as well as some sterling individual performances, Ripon couldn’t quite gel when and where it mattered. A faltering set-piece denied the hosts the solid platform they needed and resulted in much of the Ripon attacking play lurching from a standing start or the back foot. On the plus side, with two full squads to test Ripon’s ability to field a competitive 1st and 2nd XV against strong opposition for the new league structure, this was the perfect opportunity to test the efficacy of the summer’s training and potential combinations for the two squads going forward. With around 50 senior players pulling on the blue jersey for the afternoon, this was also a great opener for the season in terms of putting the playing strength of the club through its paces.

In thankfully fine weather and in front of a sizeable crowd of home and away supporters, the stand out feature of the day, was the impressive recovery of the pitch, which through laborious attention of the club’s ground crew, strategic watering and not a little luck from last week’s rain, was mostly green and took a stud.

The Ripon squad had a familiar ring to it, with a starting line up featuring all positions occupied by seasoned campaigners from 2025/26, with the notable exception of Freddy Wharton, making his first appearance in over a year following a lengthy injury lay off. The bench saw a blend of old and new, with a debut for Swainston and a welcome return to Mallorie Park for former squad member Rio, after an absence of several years.
As with standard friendly formats and with deference to the temperature and need for hydration breaks, the match was set for four quarters, with Ripon kicking off the first. Honours were pretty even for the opening exchanges, though the shunt from the visitor’s pack against Ripon’s first scrum was the shape of things to come.
After a score-less first fifteen minutes, The Blues benefitted from Peterlee’s poor discipline with a penalty touch kick and line out deep in visitor territory. The long throw from Newcombe resulted in a back peel, releasing Pearce towards midfield. Billy Fletcher was on hand to crash through to just short of the line. Some quick recycling by Harry Drane fed Clark who changed direction back out towards the touchline. Tom Graham was on hand to dance through the defence to open the score for Ripon. Clark was just left of the uprights for the 5 – 0 lead.

Undeterred, Peterlee immediately smashed their way back into the game with a strong drive from a line out soaking up some 30 metres and much of the Ripon defence. The touch down was inevitable and the conversion edged the visitors into the lead 5 – 7 as the quarter drew to a close.

The middle two sections of the match saw the visitors dominate most phases of play and exerting superior weight and physicality. With a converted try in each of the next two quarters to no reply from the hosts, Peterlee looked like running away with the game.

The final quarter however, saw The Blues get their second wind and play arguably their best Rugby of the day. With the bigger visitor forwards tiring, the home set piece started to steady itself and provide some good attacking options. No coincidence was the untimely departure of the regular referee, who left the field injured and was ably replaced by local accredited referee Michael Ford.

With the game drawing to a close and Peterlee looking like they didn’t have another score left in them, Ripon turned up the pressure and after five minutes Aborosio “Abo” Sovatabua, set Mallorie Park on fire, with a 50 metre counter attack, weaving his way through the opposition like a hot knife through butter. Clark’s conversion was good for 12 – 21 and Ripon were firmly back in the game. As the match steadily ebbed away, Ripon were throwing everything they had at their opposition, including caution to the wind at times and with two minutes left on the clock, Ollie Lang-Burns found the space to do what he does best. From a tap penalty by Drane, Rio feigned to kick, then drew the defence to put the young speedster away. Clark was just short again with the conversion, but the score of 17 – 21 put The Blues within a sniff of victory in the dying seconds. Despite a dramatic break out involving a mouthwatering 60 metre sprint by Billy Fletcher, the move eventually broke down without reaching the line. A grandstand finish that would have been, but sadly victory was just out of reach on this occasion.

Ripon will take many positives from the afternoon and testing the confidence and composure of the squad against opposition from a higher division can only be a good thing. Losing 17 -21 was no disgrace and the players and home crowd were glad of the opportunity to blow away a few cobwebs and get back into action, both on the pitch and in the bar. With the RFU imposed delay to the start of the formal league season until 26th September due to pitch conditions nationally, Ripon still have a few weeks left to source more friendly games and fine tune the squad to be competition ready.

After a fallow weekend, the next action at Mallorie Park is a charity fund raiser on 5th September, further details to follow.