1st XV Match Report - Saturday 28th September

With Rish managing to to navigate their way round the UCI world championships and the sun deciding to make appearance the stage was set for an entertaining afternoons rugby. The sponsors for the day where ‘The Grumpy Old Rucker’s’ so good vocal support was guaranteed.

Ripon started strongly against a Rish side that had come off an 85 point win at Grovians so had arrived full of confidence but with Ripon almost back to full strength they controlled ball well and should have finished two opportunities to score, instead on 30 mins against the run of play Rish scored two tries near the posts both converted with Ripon managing one penalty converted by Williams.

3-14 half time. One thing Ripon do have this season amongst other qualities is more resilience and at half time the players knew they had to keep faith in the style of rugby they were playing.

The second half Ripon carried and went forward more accurately and provided quicker ball for Williams at 10 who passed or kicked the ball into position keeping Ripon moving forward, Oliver provided a constant supply of Lineout ball and coupled with the Ripon pack again providing ball going forward Rish eventually conceded a penalty which Williams again converted. This gave Ripon the confidence to lift their game and on 64 minutes Payne crashed over for an unconverted try 11-17, 6 mins later Burgin also went over this time converted by Williams.

Ripon battled hard for the last 10mins to repel any come back from Rish and closed the game out at 18-17. Ripon now go to Old Grovians next week and need to take their home mentality on the road and start having more belief and aspiration from a side that is capable of so much more.