Pocklington 18 - 8 Dinnington
Pocklington reached the halfway point of their league campaign by recording their eighth league success from eleven starts thanks to some good attacking play at home to Dinnington.
In the first quarter of an hour Phosyn Yara sponsored Pocklington produced some of their best rugby of the year. They grabbed the initiative from the start and stretched the visitors with a series of deft offloads and attacking chips. Three times they got the ball wide for fullback Nick Bennett to stretch the visiting defence, and after they had come close at both corners they again moved possession smartly to the left flank where wing Joe Holbrough got to within sight of the line before centre Tom Stokes looped round to dive over in the corner.
Pocklington continued to do all the attacking and almost got through on a couple more occasions. But they had to wait until the half hour mark to increase their lead when Dave Birch took a scrum against the head on halfway and evergreen No 8 Paul Rhodes set off on a remarkable 45 meter burst up the middle. He almost got there but was caught a couple of yards from the line, though Dinnington's cover had to illegally kill the ball to stop the score and duly had a man sin-binned. Pocklington turned the screw and were held up over the line from a lineout drive, then from the resultant five meter scrum Rhodes needed no second invitation as he forced his way over for the try.
Dinnington had hardly had a foothold in Pocklington territory but in the 33rd minute they kicked a penalty on their first attack. Pocklington came back strongly as forwards and backs combined down the left before scrum half Ben Rees took a quick tap penalty on the run and barrelled over.
Pocklington looked in control at 15-3, especially as they went straight back onto the offensive. But the visiting back row made another crucial turnover and with the last play of the first half the Dinnington centre gave his side hope with a 70 meter solo score.
Dinnington came more into it in the second half as they got possession from the restart and kept it for a good ten minutes. Pocklington's defence held firm with man-of-the match Stokes as usual to the fore, and they took over the attack again to exert sustained pressure. A 30 meter catch and drive took the home forwards over the Dinnington line only for them to give away a penalty and let the visitors off the hook. Then a couple of long touchfinders from Henry Mitchell put them back in the corner and Scott Littlefair was driven over but had his effort disallowed.
Play became becalmed in midfield as defences remained in ascendancy,
but with ten minutes to go more Pocklington pack pressure brought Bennett a straightforward
penalty to make the game safe