Notching up their sixth win in a row and reinforcing the impregnability of “Fortress Mallorie Park”, The Blues well and truly thumped their West Yorkshire visitors in a seven try rout to nil. In front of an exuberant crowd, swelled by this week’s sponsors Bishopton Vets and undeterred by the changeable weather conditions, Ripon systematically took their opposition apart in every facet of the game. Just reward for a well-balanced Ripon squad performing cohesively and more than making up for their disappointing away defeat back in December.

Through passion and determination, this plucky squad stuck to the game plan of maintaining a consistently high work rate for a full eighty minutes, executed the simple things well and did just about enough to maintain discipline. The latter could have been better however, with some fourteen penalties conceded. Fortunately, the opposition failed to capitalise on any of the opportunities that arose. In fact, disappointingly for the visitors, they pretty much failed to get out of first gear at all. Ripon dominated the set piece and the breakdowns and ran away with a six try second half that simply blew the opposition off the park.

Apart from an overall creditable team effort, outstanding performances came from: Player-Coach Allan Hudson, as co-man of the match award winner and with a second half try, for his tireless work in the line out and breakdown; Tom Graham for a stand out performance and two tries to regain the position of this season’s top try scorer with twelve and Morgan Clark, who as well as earning co-man of the match for his tactical play, racked up an amazing 21 points from the tee for a 90% on the day performance and taking his season’s tally to 214 points.

Selection this week saw just three re-introductions to the squad and five positional changes to accommodate them. Keeping the disruption to a minimum is at the heart of a successful team and hope springs eternal for stability for the last two league games and of course the remaining Yorkshire Shield cup ties. Starting at the back, the quintessential quinquagenarian Jason Bell added his considerable experience at Full back and turned in a display of powerful and evasive running that put folks half his age to shame. Player-Coach Alex Riley guested on the Right Wing and put his pace to work with the opening try of the first half. Zak “Run Forrest” Kirby covered the other Wing and through his doggedly determined kick chase game, covered more ground than anyone else, sadly without the ball. The Centres saw the emergingly powerful partnership of route one specialist Tom Graham at Inside and the elusive running skills of Henry Hanson Outside, the former adding two more tries to his season’s tally, making it twelve to date. Morgan Clark owned the midfield at Number 10 and with his three first half penalties, put Ripon clearly in the driving seat. Adding six out of seven conversions, this was Clark’s finest day with the boot for the season. Harry Drane came back into the starting line up at Scrum Half to keep the momentum going and entertain the referee with his stimulating conversation.

In the pack, Keith Anderson started at Loose Head from last week’s bench and skipper James Pearce retained the Hooker berth. The esteemed Adam Newcombe completed the front row and donated a full eighty minutes at Tight Head, with a try to boot. The second row saw Iain Barker retain his place in the powerhouse, with a strong supporting game and opening the scoring for the second half with his first try of the season. Better late than never. Billy “Big Ears” Fletcher returned to the squad to join Barker in the row after a couple of week’s rest and hearing tests.

The back row remained unchanged from last week’s winning formula, with Tom Austin putting in a typical workmanlike performance at Blind Side and Allan Hudson at Open. Jordan layne completed the line up at Number 8. This week’s bench had a true “Bomb Squad” look to it with Jack Stiddard adding volume to the front row line up and scoring a commendable try in the second half; Charlie “Look no hands” Britton to add comedy value to the dugout and Joe Middlemiss as no-nonsense utility cover.

The pre-match mantra was all about taking the game to the opposition at pace and attacking with depth and that they certainly did, through some difficult weather conditions of initial sun, wind and then a fair amount of rain. The referee soon realised the superfluousness of his generous application of sunblock to his “follicularly challenged” head, when a woolly hat might have been a better option. There’s no such thing as bad weather – just the wrong clothing and poor planning.

Ripon started in their favoured manner when at home – uphill and into the wind. The lofted kick off forced an immediate knock on and gifted a scrum on half way within seconds. Despite the Huddersfield pack having a significant weight advantage over Ripon, this was definitely a case of size not mattering as The Blues’ scrum barely twitched from the visitors efforts and the first attack began in earnest. A high tackle on Kirby with less than a minute played gave Ripon the advantage and further thrusts towards the Huddersfield line produced two more penalties for off side. Despite Ripon’s strong efforts, the defence held firm for three minutes before breaking out from a miscommunication between Bell and Riley. The pressure released, Huddersfield ventured into the home half and benefitted territorially from a couple of penalties and some quite close encounters on the Ripon line. A stray pass gave The Blues a scrum in their 22 and out they broke again. And so the possession flip flopped for the first few minutes to no advantage until Clark opened the scoring on 15 minutes with a penalty goal for 3 – 0.

Adding insult to injury the Huddersfield restart went out on the full and gifted Ripon a scrum on the half way line. The ensuing attack broke down with a high tackle and Clark slotted his second penalty goal for 6 – 0.

Huddersfield recovered sufficiently from the next restart to press into the home half again and with the backs off side at a breakdown, the visitors’ attempted penalty goal drifted just wide. Back in control again, Ripon attacked through strong carries from Anderson, Fletcher and Graham before Clark stepped up again on 25 minutes to add a further penalty goal for 9 – 0 and his personal point tally ticking over the 200 mark. Some further interchanges looked to be keeping Huddersfield in the game but Ripon were just going from strength to strength, with their powerful set piece and direct running through Graham, Hanson and Bell. The deadlock was broken on 33 minutes when a clearance kick found Anderson loitering by the touch line and he set off at pace up field. Riley linked in to maintain momentum and chipped the last defender to gather and touch down behind the posts. Clark, now well and truly in the groove, add the extras for 16 – 0 and the guests looking quite out of sorts. Despite a late flurry of four further penalties to the visitors, no scoring opportunities appeared and Ripon’s “great wall” defence held firm until the half time whistle.

With the landscape, elements and crowd in their favour, Ripon attacked from the restart and two early penalties took them deep into the red zone. With just four minutes played, from a tap penalty by Drane, Hudson and Anderson carried towards the posts before the dynamic shift right with Newcombe stopping just short. Barker was on hand to lend his enormous length to the challenge and lunged over for Ripon’s second try. Clark add the two points for 23 – 0. His work done, Barker stepped away to be replaced by Britton. From the next restart, Hanson worked his magic to counter attack through several tackles before the breakdown offered Huddersfield a get out. The clearance kick was fielded by Clark who released Graham on a scything banana run, to outstrip the opposition and touch down for his first and Ripon’s third try. Clark made no mistake of the conversion again for 30 – 0 and Huddersfield wondering what had hit them.

Next up on the scoreboard was Hudson, who after swapping out to the Centre, was gifted a clean run in from a scrum just inside the Huddersfield 22. Clarks conversion made it 37 – 0 and with the bonus point in the bag, Ripon far from relaxing, stepped up another gear. At 22 minutes in to the half, a penalty line out saw a strong drive barge the opposition out of the way and with Newcombe steering the rear of maul, his touch down for Ripon’s fifth was a cinch. Again Clark didn’t put a foot wrong and 44 – 0 appeared on the scoreboard.

The game was heading well into its closing few minutes with the visitors pretty much put to the sword, when Stiddard brought it to life again. Repeated pulses from Fletcher, Britton and Clark were heroically brought down by the do or die defence, when Clark spotted Stiddard poised like a coiled spring to cut a sharp line. The stand in Prop barely deviated from the perpendicular and wrong footed the defence to amble in unopposed from 30 metres. Clark was on point again for 51 – 0. From the attempted restart, hapless Huddersfield failed to make the obligatory 10 metres and Ripon had possession again from the scrum on half way.

In the final three minutes as buoyant Ripon were looking to cut loose again and Huddersfield were clinging onto their dignity by their fingernails, no less than six further penalties were blown up, two to Huddersfield and four to Ripon. Needless to say, no advantage came from the opposition’s possession. The final penalty for The Blues saw a tap and go from Riley and then onto Clark. A quick switch saw Graham coming back inside and run in unopposed for Ripon’s seventh. Clark uncharacteristically just ran out of steam with the conversion and the final whistle blew for a resounding 56 – 0 victory and the “Mallorie Park Massive” jubilantly on their feet.

A top notch performance with many credits for work rate and execution. The discipline still lacked somewhat and without being over-critical, the next few games, two league and at least a Yorkshire Shield semi-final, could be a lot closer. Keeping cool, reading the referee better and avoiding unnecessary penalties has to be the call from now to the end of the season. A great home win and with six on the bounce now, Ripon are in good spirits and looking forward to finishing off the season on a high note.

Next week, Ripon head for the coast for a crunch encounter with second placed Bridlington, who will be desperate to seal their promotion bid with a bonus point win. A tough place to visit at the best of times, but with Ripon’s current form, anything is possible. All travelling support will be very welcome for the 3.00pm kick off.