North Ribblesdale 3 - 6 Pocklington
Pocklington
produced a performance full of determination and discipline
to record an excellent
Yorkshire Two victory away to promotion
chasing North Ribblesdale.
Ribblesdale's
ground at Settle is traditionally one of the hardest
places to get a result.
But Pocklington have now won there five times
out of their last six visits,
and they fully deserved it again on Saturday in a full-blooded encounter between
two totally committed teams.
Despite the recent rains, the Ribblesdale pitch was in surprisingly good condition, and the closeness of the scoreline was down to the strong tackling on either side, rather than the conditions.
Phosyn Yara sponsored Pocklington had prepared carefully and started well, retaining possession well from the kick off, and with fly half Henry Mitchell putting in some astute early line kicks, they spent the whole of the first quarter in Ribblesdale territory.
Despite some thumping tackles from the off, Pocklington almost broke the deadlock on 12 minutes when centre Al Stuart cut through in midfield and sent fullback Nick Bennett racing for the line, but he was stopped by a last ditch tackle from the home fullback then lost the ball as he tried to stretch over. Nevertheless, Pocklington remained on the attack and it was no surprise when Bennett drilled over a 38 yard penalty to open the scoring.
Ribblesdale's
forwards have outplayed most of the packs in Yorkshire
Two this season, but
the Pocklington eight matched them blow for blow -
even when lock Mark Biggin
was sin-binned on the half hour for
interferring with his opposite number
in the lineout. The home side had an unsuccessful pot at goal, but Pocklington's
back row ensured that Ribblesdale never got going with Matt Atkinson using all
his disruptive experience at No 8, and flankers Dan Wilson and Scott Littlefair
never far from the ball in attack and defence.
Even when prop George Fell limped off before the break and had to be replaced by utility player Phil Priestley, Pocklington's forwards continued to gain parity in both set and loose. While the home backs made little progress against the Pocklington threequarters, where man of the match Tom Stokes again was the epitome of solidity in midfield and Tim Nixon caused Ribblesdale all sorts of problems with his powerful running every time he touched the ball.
However, Pocklington handed Ribblesdale an equalising penalty with the last play of the first half when they won a scum but over-elaborated at the back and gave away three points.
If Ribblesdale had ended the first
half helped by a Pocklington error,
they started the second period boosted
by a large slice of luck when a
speculative kick ahead hit the foot of a post
and gave them five yard scrum. But Pocklington responded with more big defence
until they turned over possession and kicked clear.
The initiative swung
one way and then the other as both backs rows were
enjoying a rare tussle
at the breakdown, with Littlefair making a series of crucial steals. Mitchell's
boot kept Pocklington going forward and they again came within a whisker of a
try when Dave Birch, who had been forced to switch from hooker to prop in the
first half, collected a loose ball and drove for the line but was adjudged to
have dropped it as he went over.
Nixon again broke through only to slip in a wet patch 15 yards out. However, Pocklington held the position and when replacement back row Paul Rhodes spun off the back of an attacking scrum, Ribblesdale killed the ball in front of the posts. Bennett stepped up to nervelessly bang over the penalty and regain the lead.
There was still five minutes of stoppage time
to go, but Pocklington's unwavering tackling, safe catching and lengthy kicking
made sure
they repulsed one final Ribblesdale thrust and they ended the game
on the attack to take a marvellous result.