Dinnington vs Ripon - Saturday 18th November

In the setting sun, on a hilltop just about as far as you can go South in Yorkshire, Ripon ground out a solid bonus point victory, to maintain their strong position in the top half of Counties 2 Yorkshire. The hosts Dinnington didn’t really know what hit them as The Blues set out their stall early on and dominated the set piece to unleash their exciting style of play and rack up three first half Tries. An uncharacteristic off day with the boot for Bray saw a further few points go begging, but the Player Coach more than made up with his game management, starting at Number 10 and ending up at Full Back. Setting up effective strike moves like Banzai charges at times, Bray got things moving with ball in hand and some impressive long distance positional kicking.

If there is a down side to a five-point bonus win on the road, it has to be Ripon’s failure to play the Referee sufficiently well to avoid the two Yellow Cards, that reduced The Blues to 13 men for an uncomfortable second half period. Fortunately for Ripon the abject failure of the hosts to gain any ground or score, despite their Kamikaze efforts up the middle during the power play, was probably testament to their overall lack of a game plan. Missing the window of opportunity to spread their play out wide, even for ten minutes, was to cost Dinnington dear and perhaps reinforce the reason for their lowly position in the league following their relegation from last season’s Counties 1.

With an ineffective set piece, the hosts looked to be in all sorts of trouble for most of the first half and but for a Converted Try in the second, did little to bother Ripon’s lead from the start. A determined effort in the second half didn’t do the damage Dinnington tried to achieve and despite a significant weight advantage in the pack, didn’t make any significant difference from their repeated attacks, other than their two consolation Tries.

A concern for Ripon, was the return to poor discipline in the eyes of the Referee after a good previous week’s display. With Penalties back into double figures again and multiple sin-binning, this is not the way The Blues want to play and need to sharpen up any areas of misunderstanding around the breakdown.

This week’s selection looked to be another shoe in for key influencers, but was upset by some last-minute withdrawals and so a total of nine differences appeared from last week’s team list. The easy pick was last week’s front five, who survived in their entirety for the second week running. The third time this season in which the front five has been the same for two consecutive weeks. Keith Anderson made the most of the advantage offered by Evan’s enduring injury at Loose Head and James Pearce brought some “Eastern Promise” to the Hooker slot again. Dom “Sumo” Dalby was a pillar of strength at Tight Head and was instrumental in the Blues’ scrum dominance, as well as some mighty carries and dumps in open play. The second row had a part time feel to it, with both Skipper Iain Barker and his protégé Tom Roebuck taking time out to recover their breath in the second half, whilst coming to terms with refereeing decisions about body weight and arms in tackles. Technicalities often beyond the ken of tight forwards. The back row saw a reshuffle with Perez taking time out and so the Number 8 jersey was ably accommodated by Harry Veitch, swiftly becoming a force to be reckoned with in the adult game. Tom Austin stepped up from last week’s bench to start at Blind Side and Freddy Wharton put in a typically frantic performance at Open Side and with a first half Try kept the forward score sheet ticking over nicely.

Marston and Thompson were due to start at 9 and 10 respectively, but the late withdrawal of Wood, saw final and bonus point Try scoring Archie Thompson drop to Inside Centre and Mikey Bray, with a five-point tally, step in to Number 10. Will Barrett returned after a prolonged injury to make a massive impact zeroing into midfield attacks and maintaining momentum going forward. Matthew Binks made his 1st XV debut on the Left Wing in his second season around the squad and emphasised his selection with the opening Try after only six minutes. Tom Graham picked himself on the Right Wing and added to his Try tally in the middle of the first half, whilst generally making mincemeat of anyone trying to stop him. Hooley completed the starting line up at Full Back, though appeared at will whenever and wherever the opportunity arose.

The bench was ably occupied by Adam Newcombe, looking to add his vast tactical experience to anywhere in the pack and Joe Middlemiss, looking to add his aggressive tackling technique to anything, especially static objects. Bringing up the rear and making his senior debut and completing the “Tom Four” line up was Tom Senior. Fortunately not all four Toms were on the field together at the same time to cause any confusion.

Dinnington opted to kick up their weird slope, into the sun and the wind, in the vain hope of taking advantage of the topography and weather in the second half. Ripon received neatly through Barrett and through swift hands returned play with interest. The flow broke down after three minutes with a knock on, but the ensuing scrum saw The Blues begin to assert their dominance over the hosts’ bigger and heavier pack.
At six minutes, after five plus phases were built up from a Ripon scrum, the ball was recycled neatly for Thompson and Barrett to punch through the defence. Bray was involved twice in the handling before unleashing Graham coming across from his wing. Unselfishly Graham drew and passed to Binks, who scampered in the last 20 metres to open the scoring. A fitting moment to score the first Try of the game on his first match. Bray was just short of the Conversion but The Blues looked right up for a win from this point at 0 – 5 and didn’t disappoint after a while Dinnington used the slope to their advantage around the 15-minute point and from a Penalty chose the line out option. The catch and drive offered the hosts the chance to batter at the visitor’s line for a couple of minutes before the Blue Wall finally crumbled. The Converted Try took the hosts into the lead at 7 – 5.

The hosts further increased their lead after 25 minutes with a long-range Penalty Goal for 10 – 5 and that was the final spark to get Ripon’s motor firing on all cylinders.

From the restart, Barrett caught and took play back up the hill. A speedy move involving Bray and Veitch saw The Blues close in on the line and a floated pass out to Graham gave him the space he needed to run in Ripon’s second Tray and even the score after Bray’s missed kick to 10 – 10.

Bray found his momentum with a Penalty Goal after a further 10 minutes as the half was drawing to the close to regain the lead at 10 – 13 and the icing on the cake came from Wharton in injury time. Roebuck won a Dinnington line out cleanly to launch a quick ball left field. Binks carried well to feed Austin in support. Marston was swiftly to the next breakdown to set Bray off again to make some yards before releasing Graham. Unselfishly the Wing offloaded to Wharton to touch down and with Bray’s Conversion, took the score at the break to 10 – 20.

The second half was much more scrappy for both sides. Ripon didn’t play the wind and slope as effectively as they could and whilst conceding half the number of Penalties as their opposition, didn’t gain any material advantage. Indeed, losing both Locks for breakdown offences at near enough the same time was more than careless. Fortunately this had no negative impact on the Ripon set piece. The impetus gained from Roebuck’s despatch at 60 minutes let in a Converted Try to narrow the gap to 17 – 20, but with Barker similarly removed from play moments later, that was it and Ripon knuckled down to sharpen up their act.

The final quarter saw a lot of concerted efforts from Dinnington to try and score and whilst approaching the Ripon line on a couple of occasions, never looked like crossing it again. Ripon had the final say after 72 minutes when Archie Thompson battered his way through the defence after Veitch made some ground from a 5-metre scrum and Bray attacked blind. Bray’s Conversion attempt was frustratingly close enough to bounce off the upright the wrong way. There the score stayed until the final whistle.

A bonus point win on the road is a celebration to behold and the oriental cuisine offered for the player’s meals was a worthy way of completing a fine afternoon of Rugby. The Penalty count needs to reduce and the keeping of 15 players on the pitch needs to increase. Apart from that, if this squad actually gets into top gear, that would be something. The peril of the Yellow Cards needs to be eliminated and all will be good.

Next week Ripon 1st XV, take a break from league and cup action to rest, recuperate and rebuild for the mouthwatering prospect of entertaining old friends Leeds Corinthians at Mallorie Park on 2nd December. Hopefully a game full of festive seasonal cheer and a joyous continuation of the bonhomie established between the clubs over previous seasons. Kick off will be at 2.15, all supporters very welcome.