Yarnbury U13s vs Ilkley

Apart from some hardened under 7’s, there was no rugby being played at Yarnbury, with this game going ahead at Rawdon Littlemoor, despite mid-week weather concerns. Carter Proctor and Harvey Goodall were back from injury, both starting on the bench.

Yarnbury started and the kick-off bounced into touch. Ilkley shortened the lineout as they held a considerable height advantage. Pressure in the Ilkley half continued and in the 2nd minute Yarnbury won a penalty with the opposition defence offside. The resulting penalty was tapped quickly by Oscar Andrews and given to Luca Volpe who broke through the defensive line to score. The tricky conversion was kicked by Oscar Andrews - Yarnbury 7-0 Ilkley. From the Ilkley kick off a good clearance kick from Maxwell Lee resulted in a maul, but the ball wasn’t going anywhere because of the packs speed to get to it, leading to a Yarnbury scrum. Yarnbury had the edge in the scrums and from this one they put the ball down the line first to Nathan Snee who almost broke the defensive line and then quick ball meant that Jamie McDonnell could run into the opposition 22 before being tackled out of play for a line out to Ilkley. Later on Luke Woodend made a strong run into the 22 almost shrugging off 2 defenders but he was isolated and penalised for holding on to the ball. From the resulting penalty the ball went through the hands of the Ilkley backs but a fumble allowed captain, Alex Koppany, to score. Oscar Andrews converted and with 8 minutes gone, Yarnbury where leading 14-0.

Yarnbury continued to attack and Nathan Snee made a good break into the Ilkley 22 but was adjudged to have swung his elbow in the tackle. The resulting penalty was taken quickly but in the tackle Maxwell Lee turned the ball over and it took a couple of drives from Edward Green and Luca Volpe before Maxwell Lee could again get his hands on the ball and side step over the line from 5m out. This was converted and Yarnbury where now 21 points to the good. 16 minutes in and Yarnbury continued to dominate play. Good drives from Luca Volpe, Luke Woodend and Dan Mitchell got the ball close to the try line whilst sucking in the Ilkley defence allowing Yarnbury to recycle the ball out wide to Nathan Snee to hand off the final defender to score Yarnbury’s fourth try. The conversion was again kicked by Oscar Andrews with the score Yarnbury 28-0 Ilkley.

Yarnbury won a scrum against the head and the ball was passed to Jamie McDonnell who made a good run before passing the ball inside to Nathan Snee who broke more tackles but knocked on less than a metre away from the line. In the 21st minute Yarnbury had good territory in the Ilkley 22 but stopped playing following a knock-on allowing an Ilkley player to breakaway and score under the posts. The try was converted and Yarnbury’s lead was reduced to 28-7. Ilkley’s confidence was restored and in the final minutes of the half were putting pressure on the Yarnbury defence, but they eventually gave away a penalty and the half ended Yarnbury 28-7 Ilkley.

For the first 10 minutes of the second half Ilkley were stuck in their own half, despite playing downhill, with Yarnbury going through multiple phases of play to try and control the game. Lessons from the previous game had been learned with some excellent play by Edward Green, Joe Pilling and Carter Proctor. Ilkley still had some chances to break requiring good defensive awareness by Yarnbury. Jamie Baker, now playing at flyhalf with Maxwell Lee changing to scrum half, made a good tackle forcing the ball carrier into touch. From the line out Yarnbury passed the ball down the line to Jamie McDonnell to use his pace to run down the touch line before scoring under the posts. Kicking duties were left to Jamie Baker who maintained the 100% kicking record and in the 41st minute Yarnbury led 35-7. Further pressure from Yarnbury resulted in an Ilkley knock on and the scrum that followed allowed the ball to again go down the line to Jamie McDonnell, who this time had it all to do, but stepped around / ran through the last couple of defenders and scored next to the posts. The conversion was kicked and after 45 minutes the scores were Yarnbury 42-7 Ilkley.

Yarnbury again found themselves in the Ilkley 22 when a promising chance was denied by a retreating opposition player running into Maxwell Lee. The resulting penalty was taken quickly and passed to Luca Volpe who charged through the defence to score under the posts with Jamie Baker converting - Yarnbury 49-7 Ilkley. There was still time for the kick-off and in the last play of the game Ilkley turned over the ball in the tackle and were able to break and pass the ball to their winger to score in the corner. The conversion was missed with the final score Yarnbury 49-12 Ilkley.
Match Summary – Yarnbury were dominant and the winning margin could have been even greater. Special mention has to go to Luca Volpe for a good all round performance, and the kickers Oscar Andrews and Jamie Baker who between them didn’t miss a conversion.
Man of the match – Nathan Snee, for a good all round performance but also for making the small adjustments to his game that the coaches had identified from the previous week’s loss.
Song of the week – Lessons learned by Carrie Underwood, the blues came back stronger from last week’s loss and took the coaches comments on board. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qYAc4mNe8Q