Spring has many meanings for many people, usually about growth, birth and rebirth. Whilst the weather remains unpredictable and nature does what it does, the sad passing of loved ones naturally blends in with the eagerness to celebrate new life, new beginnings and applaud success. It was fitting therefore that the club chose to acknowledge the very sad and untimely passing of long-standing club stalwart David Hirst after a short, but stoically borne battle with Motor Neurone Disease this week. A horrible affliction that many in Rugby (of both codes) circles will know about and will probably have participated in fund raising for. In this context, it was befitting for the spectators and players present at Mallorie Park on this day, to participate in a one-minute pre-match applause, in celebration of David’s life, contribution to the local community and Ripon RUFC.

After a few seasons of relative stability in the captaincy of the playing strength of the club, with the likes of Newcombe and Barker at the helm for so many years between them, this season saw new blood in the nomination of Dom Butler to lead the club. Whilst not playing more recently due to injury, Dom has been an inspiration off the pitch, translating his abrasive playing style into a more diplomatically put: “Ripon expects…” dialogue with the squad; as well as providing vocal support on match days. Leadership in its true sense is evidenced by the strength of the following and the achievement of results.
And so, after three weeks of stirring and motivating dialogue from the far from inactive Skipper, Ripon pulled their third successive victory out of the bag for the first time this season. A team performance worthy of offering most enthusiastic contrafibularities to all. Celebrations aside, this was a generally subdued performance overall despite the five-Try bonus point win, which was however, brought to light by the outstanding performance in only his second adult outing, by the hat-trick Try-scoring Colt, Freddie Wharton. An inspiration in attack and defence, Freddie instinctively cropped up in all of the right places at the right times, to do some serious damage to the opposition and their chances of winning the game.

It wasn’t all plain sailing for Ripon however and with the opposition taking an unexpected early lead and then staying within seven points of the hosts on a number of occasions, The Blues might well be kicking themselves for not closing the game down sufficiently early on and avoiding Grovians gaining their four-Try losing bonus point. Not exactly back to the drawing board, but Ripon do need to continue to build on their positives, such as a good first half disciplinary record and the quality of their support play. The set piece still looked like it might benefit from some more cohesion and tonnage, but what possession Ripon did get from it was largely well used.

With a score line of 13 – 8 at half time, Ripon looked to be making hard work of the game and so it went on, but the second half performance of three Tries a piece was decided in home favour by the eventual man of the match performance of Morgan Clark, for his excellent kicking, both from the hand in defence and attack, as well as his spot-on three Conversions and Penalty Goal. Boring as it may be to spectators to “go for goal”, but with opposition as lively as Old Grovians, taking the points was a must and so the boot of Clark as well as the Try scoring ability of Wharton won the day for Ripon.

The final result of 37 – 27 keeps Ripon still at third from bottom of Yorkshire Division Two, with Grovians and their extra bonus point, one above. In the training to come over the next two weeks, Ripon will be seeking to iron out any remaining wrinkles in their plan to finish on a high note and to eliminate unnecessary errors for their final game.

Selection this week saw a total of ten changes from last week’s game, with a debut for “Tommy” Ratu to excite with his strength and pace as a utility back replacement, six recalls to the squad due to unavailability and injuries and three positional changes from last week.
For the sixth week running Newcombe retained his place at Hooker and carried on the captaincy again, with Koroiyadi and Slator keeping their places at Loose Head and Tight Head respectively for the fourth week running. Newcombe had perhaps his busiest and most effective carrying game of the season so far and Slator’s carrying game was short but effective, with the most spectacular one metre Try dive seen for a while. The Second Row saw Anderson partnering old mate Britton again to carry on their brother bonding on pitch.

Another new look Back Row saw Lees retain his place and Wainwright reclaiming the Number 8 jersey. Wharton made up the triumvirate to add the necessary spark to the squad’s forward play.

The back line saw four changes from last week and looked about as good as any so far this season. Pillar kept the Number 10 jersey for the sixth week running and was re-joined at Scrum Half by Mainey for his second on the trot. A note of thanks to Sam Pillar for his outstanding service to the Club and the Squad in this his last game for a while before he sets off out into the big wide world. We all wish Sam all the very best and for him to come back bigger, stronger and still as keen to play for Ripon. Wray was recalled to the Left Wing to keep up the pace in attack and Mewes was recalled on the Right Wing to do just the same. Another new look Centre pairing saw Barrett stepping up from last week’s bench and Woolfenden slipped back into the squad to do his Lupine best. The Full Back berth was filled by Morgan Clark for the fourth week in succession to add his metronomic place kicking and cool-headedness in defence to the side. The bench included utility forward Hill for his options in the scrum, a recalled Thomson to bring some muscle to the backs and Ratu, to add whatever the Fijian translation of “Je ne sais quoi”, which he certainly delivered from the moment he entered play in the second half.

The first half saw Ripon play uphill and into the wind as is traditional for those that don’t understand the local landscape and through Wharton and Mainey took the lead through two Tries, one converted by Clark, against a Penalty Goal and unconverted Try from the visitors.

The first home Try at 19 minutes, saw Newcombe make some hard yards before offloading to Wainwright. Some sleight of hand saw the ball slipped to Wharton to score his first of three. Clark was not quite there with the conversion, but the five points took Ripon into the lead after Grovians had kicked an earlier Penalty Goal. Clark made amends at 25 minutes with a Penalty Goal to take the led to 8 – 3. An indiscretion in open play soon after led to a Grovians penalty touch kick and the ensuing line out saw an effective catch and drive to level the score with an unconverted Try at 8 – 8.

Just after the half hour, Ripon pressed well in attack and built-up good phases with carries going well and possession retained effectively. Mewes made a significant break up his wing and was just caught by a last-ditch tackle. Newcombe was hot in support to carry on the attack from the breakdown and Mainey jinked his way in for Ripon’s second Try. Clark narrowly missed the Conversion attempt, but more than made up later and so the score remained at 13 – 8 at half time.

The half time team talk reiterated the mantra of patience, accuracy, composure and execution and so the second half was entered into with a clear steer to play away from the opposition’s strengths and to Ripon’s own. With a second half score line of 24 – 19 in favour of the hosts, this didn’t quite work out as planned. The opposition were more than spirited and competed strongly at every phase of the game, especially the set piece. Again, Ripon were found lacking in robustness and the loss of Koroiyadi early on compounded the difficulty The Blues were experiencing in the scrum.

Slator opened the post-break scoring for the hosts in the third minute after following up a move in which Ratu handled three times and made 30 metres, before handing over to Wainwright to carry to within a metre of the line. The melee revealed the ball within inches of the line and Slator was on hand to pick and flop over to increase the Ripon Try tally to three. Clark added the near touchline conversion to nudge the score to 20 – 8.
Grovians responded immediately and for the experienced, not unexpectedly from the restart and ran in a virtually unopposed unconverted Try to reduce the gap to 20 – 13. Ripon responded positively from the next restart to retain possession well and rebuild their attacking phases. After eleven minutes, again Ratu smashed his way through the opposition to set up another scoring opportunity. Wainwright was on hand to carry on the attack, who then fed link man Pillar. Buoyed up from his earlier Try, Slator was in close support to soak up some defenders before releasing Wharton for his second Try. Clark retained his momentum with the conversion and the score went up to 27 – 13.

Giving the opposition far too much freedom, again Ripon looked vulnerable in defence and at the end of the third quarter, saw the visitors cross the whitewash for their third Converted Try and the score closing to 27 – 20. Ripon then sought to get into a decent run of plays that saw clever positional kicking from Clark and good support play. However, The Blues’ indiscipline in the final quarter was nearly the end of them and the visitors were presented with more opportunities to get back in the game than was necessary. Again, credit where it’s due, Grovians competed everywhere and looked dangerous every time they had the ball.

Against the run of play on 36 minutes into the half, a turnover by Clark in defence saw him kick on for Thomson to chase and secure. The breakdown saw Hill instrumental in releasing the ball for Wharton to latch on and scamper home under the posts for his hat-trick. Clark kicked the conversion with his eyes shut to take the score to 37 – 20.

With less than three minutes normal time left on the clock what could possibly go wrong? A succession of penalties to Grovians for Ripon offences at the breakdown saw the visitors in the driving seat for the last few phases of the game and the outcome of their efforts was the Converted Try on 45 minutes to take the final score to 37 – 27.

With a rest this weekend Ripon are preparing meticulously for their final league encounter of the season away at Thornensians on Saturday 23rd April. A long way to go, but no hardship surely to see The Blues finish off the season with the level of support they have become accustomed to recently. Kick-off is at 3.00pm and all travelling support will be very welcome and much appreciated.