Pocklington 20 - 12 West Park Leeds
Pocklington
had to come from behind to secure victory over a defiant West Park Leeds, taking
the result through two second half tries from brothers Jack and Joe Holbrough.
Pocklington
had won comfortably at lowly Leeds earlier in the season. But the visitors have
beefed up their pack since then and they were the first to show. West Park pressed
at both corners through their big forwards and Pocklington's early defence needed
to be well organized to repell them.
Yara Phosyn sponsored Pocklington then
worked their way upfield and Ben Rees' grub kick to the corner heralded a spell
of strong home pressure. They went for successive catch and drives on the right
then the left, and when the play finally came back into the middle West Park killed
the ball in the 23rd minute for Pocklington centre Nick Bennett to break the deadlock
with a straightforward penalty.
Pocklington's pack, with young prop Chris Morton
to the fore, worked hard into the wind but the home side wasted a couple of promising
positions with loose passes. On the half hour West Park were then gifted a good
attacking platform and they got the ball wide right with men in support. Pocklington
initially made the tackle a couple of yards out but the ball squirted sideways
on the floor and West Park reacted quickly to cross in the corner and convert
from the touchline.
West Park were lifted by the score and soon after they
got a man clear on the right wing before home fullback Steve Shephard somehow
got across to save the day. But West Park extended their lead with the last play
of the first half when they broke blind from halfway and offloaded out of the
tackle to again score at the right flag.
That sent West Park into the interval
with a 12-3 lead. And though Pocklington made a couple of substitutions to try
and reinvigorate their response, it took them until midway through the second
period to get back in contention. Both sides had some lively backs on show, but
lax refereeing from the visiting Liverpool official meant that neither side was
able to get quick ball to release their runners.
Pocklington finally moved
up a gear thanks to an marvellous 80-yard try. Teenage centre Jack Holbrough started
it with a charge out of his own 22, Bennett accelerated away down the right flank,
at last a quick ruck fed fly half Henry Mitchell to take the ball up and Jack
Holbrough arrived at full tilt to gallop the final 20 yards to the posts for Bennett
to convert.
Pocklington kept plugging away, with their strong defence invariably
stopping West Park's backs making any progress. And they finally got their noses
in front when a good attack down the right was followed by quick passing left
to send wing Joe Holbrough diving over in the corner.
Bennett kicked the touchline
conversion, before Pocklington attacked again and saw a bizarre drop goal effort
go wide. But inside the final five minutes Pocklington were awarded a penalty
40 yards out and Bennett sent the ball sailing between the posts to make the game
safe.