Ossett victory in York downpour

Ossett travelled to York with a couple of changes from the visit of Hessle last week, Dale Burnley making his first appearance of the season in the second row and Jonny Karadzic starting in the back row.
Ossett kicked off with the driving rain at their backs and the opening salvos saw the Ossett pack making huge inroads in to the RI territory , quick ball from one maul saw full back Jack Drury put Nathan Lawrence in to space to use his pace to score out wide in only the third minute. The conversion was missed.
Almost immediately Ossett were back on the offensive Nase Alofi making lots of ground down the middle , the pack had a few darts from close in to the try line after being held up a few times skipper Danny Buckley decided to use his backs from where Jack Drurys pass out wide to Nathan Lawrence was intercepted by the RI Winger who went the full length of the pitch to score totally against the run of play, the conversion was successful and RI lead 7-5 after 11 minutes
Ossett continued to press mixing play up from forward and Backs , Buckley and Sean Abson cleverly using the conditions to kick behind the RI defence who seemed to be up very quick all game long.
On 28 minutes RI had a player sin binned for falling foul of the new tackle laws with the referee adjudging the tackle was high. During this period Ossett had a sustained amount of pressure on the RI try line , Ryan Fonquernie drove close to the line , Rob Young in support smuggled the ball off him and crashed over much to the consternation of the York team who thought Fonq had knocked on. Jack Drury kicked the conversion and were 12-7 up.
On the stroke of Half time Fonq scored a try from close quarters , again the conversion was missed , the referee blew for Half time with Ossett 17-7 to the good.
RI kicked off long and were in Ossett territory, pretty much for the first time since their score , it took Ossett a few minutes to break down the RI defence , once they did Dale Burnley made huge yards up the middle of the pitch , York prevented quick ball and a penalty was given 35 metres out.
In to the wind and rain Drury was short , the York defender looked unsure what to do and his confusion the ball bounced off his chest, Mark Fisher following the kick up regathered the ball , picked up and appeared to score however the referee waved play on Rob Young picked up and crashed over again, just. The conversion was good. 24-7
The next 15 minutes RI got a little bit of parity whist never threatening the Ossett line, during this period Luke Newsome received a yellow card , again for the new tackle law
Exactly half way through the half Nase Alofi made the game safe by going over out wide. 29-7.
Four minutes later Ossett broke from Defence scrum half and Skipper Danny Buckley broke blind and fed winger Mark Fisher who broke the first couple of tackles , he then found himself with a 2 on 1 on the York defender , a simple pass would have put Tom Rogers away , however the resulting dummy was bought by the defender and he finished a great try, Jack Drury converted. 36-7.
The final act of the game saw Nathan Lawrence make a break who in turn found Luke Newsome who beat the first defender with pace the second defender was beat with a perfect hand off (the biggest compliment I can pay Bambi is to say it was Charlie Jackson esq – for those old enough to know) to score right by the touch line , the conversion was missed , the excellent referee brought an end to proceedings with Ossett victorious by 41 points to 7
A fantastic performance from Ossett against a stubborn York team , who will not lose many this season.
Individually and collectively Ossett bossed the game for the whole 80 minutes whilst also adapting the awful conditions

Tries:- Rob Young 2, Nathan Lawrence, Ryan Fonquernie, Nase Alofi, Mark Fisher, Luke Newsome Conversions:- Jack Drury 3

Thanks to Jez for the match report - I was getting just as wet watching the second XV!

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