Yarnbury 14-15 Hullensians – Yorks 1 league
Yarnbury welcomed their close rivals from Hull for a return match after loosing away earlier in the season.Hullensians and Yarnbury have a great relationship due to the teams competing closely over the last few seasons with honours shared in the main.For this game Hullensians had a strong side with ex Scottish International Jon Steel on the wing and Jason Conroy back at No 8 who always provides Yarnbury with problems particularly at the line out.The Horsforth side had late absentees of two influential forwards with the loss of No8 Jimmy Cryan back row and hooker Tom Gilcrist due to illness.Adam Batson and Tom Fox appearing in their absence in the back row.The experienced stand off Carl Paterson was a substitute for Yarnbury against his old side.
The pitch had recovered somewhat from recent rains and held up well allowing Yarnbury to play a fifteen man game particularly in the first half probing around the field for openings.Full back Danny Pound tried a chip over but the Hull defence cleared the danger before a Hull break was smothered by the Yarnbury defence who were asking questions early on of the visitors before a Yarnbury break out and recycle saw the ball pass through many hands before the defence was stretched on the switch of play for hooker Harry Minchello to make the touchdown after 10 minutes.Hull then had a penalty kick to the 5 metre line but the resulting line out was not straight and the danger cleared.However from a not straight Yarnbury line out Hullensians No8 Jason Conroy made the line too easily from the back of the scrum to open their account but full back Alex Bloomfield missed the conversion.The game stayed at 7-5 to Yarnbury for the remainder of the half both defences on top.
Yarnbury brought on Carl Paterson at stand off for the hard working Stephen Riley just as the Helenians pack found their cohesion from the start of the second half and put Yarnbury on the back foot when a scrum was won by the visitors against the head on the halfway line.Yarnbury were let off almost immediately from a five metre scrum when No8 Conroy was stopped short of the line from the back of the scrum by the Yarnbury defence with wing forward Tom Fox outstanding in defence.Paterson missed narrowly from out wide left with a penalty after good attacking work took Yarnbury deep into the Hull half but the away side scored a second try on the counter with left wing Josh langford outflanking the home defence .Again the try went unconverted in the soft conditions.
Wing forward Jack Butler made a welcome return after 60 minutes for the hard working Russ Gomersall but the Yarnbury line out was not working well and after stand off Paterson put Yarnbury on the attack with probing kicks down the line Hull No8 Jason Conroy repeatedly stole crucial line out ball to stop Yarnbury attacks.Something they would regret.Good defence kept out Hull as they got on top in the final quarter.The lead was extended with a piece of calm experienced rugby with the Hull attack going right near the Yarnbury line after another penalty the ball was moved wide to Jon Steel who had been kept quiet by the Yarnbury defence and was double tackled well near the line but his experience and calmness told with the ball being grounded over his head in the tackle near the corner flag but the conversion was not completed.
Time was running out for the Horsforth side who were in danger of getting nothing from a sterling effort all round .With the last play of the match they shipped out right to centre Jason Avison just back after a year out with injury who shrugged off a would be tackler to make good yards before passing to Graham Maycock on the right wing to score and round the full back to give Danny Pound a simple conversion.With better line out work the game could have gone to the home side but a precious bonus point was earned for all the hard work from a determined squad.