Sandal 39 - 3 Pocklington
Pocklington were
shown why Sandal are the runaway Yorkshire One leaders when the Wakefield outfit
cruised through to the next round of the Yorkshire Shield.
Sandal were a top
National Division side just a few years ago and are now climbing back up the leagues.
They are unbeaten and scoring hatfuls of points at home, including racking up
a 107-3 win over Redcar the previous week. But Pocklington's youngsters stuck
to their task valiently and did all the attacking for the first half hour. Teenage
flanker Karl Durkin showed up well in the opening exchanges and twice Pocklington
were a fingertip away from an early score. Both times Pocklington's rush defence
forced the ball to go loose near the home line, but both times it bounced away
from the Pock man following up. In the end all Yara Phosyn sponsored Pocklington
had to show for their pressure was a 13th minute Bennett penalty to take the lead.
Pocklington
continued to attack with scrum half Ben Rees leading some strong charges, but
the home side then showed how dangerous they were when they got into their stride
to break twice from their own half for two long distance tries in as many minutes
on either side of the half hour.
Bennett put in an outstanding stint of thumping
tackles to get Pocklington back on track and they resumed the offensive down the
slope. Twice Pocklington set up good positions and tried to drive for the line
through their forwards, but Sandal's defence held firm for the home side to lead
12-3 at the break.
While the bounce had gone against Pocklington early in the
first period, Sandal benefitted twice at the start of the second half when a loose
ball bobbled their way for two further tries in quick succession to pull clear.
Pocklington
never let their heads drop and continued to tackle strongly, with replacement
Scott Littlefair immediately announcing his arrival with a big hit. But Sandal
were always in the driving seat, producing some impressive back play and good
angles of running to add three more tries into the final quarter.
The home
side coasted into the next round and are likely to be favourites to win the competition,
but Pocklington kept plugging away and ended the game back on the attack. Some
good interpassing took them 50 yards up the right and Bennett went close with
a last minute run, only for Sandal's cover and the referee's final whistle to
cut short their late rally.