Yarnbury 24 – 56 Roundhegians – Yorkshire 2 League

match report by John Rawson

Yarnbury 24 – 56 Roundhegians – Yorkshire 2 League

Yarnbury had beaten top of the table away Goole recently and so did Roundhegians last week at home and as they are determined to get away from the bottom of the league this contest had added spice ,particularly as Yarnbury won by 60 points in last season fixture.

Yarnbury welcomed back the bulk and stature of second row James Falgate and prop Richard Lister to give some stability in the scrum and with Les Crowther in at scrum half the team looked settled for this encounter which started with Yarnbury on the attack but Roundhegians cleared the danger before creating their own pressure but the Yarnbury defence across the park was solid and full back Will Marshall cleared the lines with good punts to the halfway line before Yarnbury had a penalty line out in the opponents half and a quick ball off the top of the line out to Centre Josh Bell carve through the defence with ease to score under the posts for an unconverted try as full back somehow sliced his conversion.Then full back Alex Jones for the opponents went over in the corner as both sides decided on attacking rugby.He also banged over the conversion form the touch line.Twelve minutes later Yarnbury repeated the dose from a line out this time to Captain and centre James White who also carved through the opponents defence to score under the posts with ease .Marshall converting.Not to be outshone Roundhegians regained the lead with a try in the other corner through right wing Ewan Cameron with a long pass from stand off James Dobson .Alex Jones converted again to give a 12-14 lead to the opponents at half time in an even first half.

However,the second half was a different matter as the away side took control with some astute kicking out of defence and pin point strokes to the corner which got behind the Yarnbury defence.Two tries in the first 10 minutes by the away side put them in a commanding position by James Thistlewaite a strong running centre and another from full back Alex Jones who was a constant threat coming in to the line with his pace and two conversions from him also opened up a gap for the opponents before Josh Bell scored wide left from a good handling move for Yarnbury and Stand Off Danny Pound slotted the conversion. Yarnbury could not keep out the opposition and the Roundhegians backs again did damage when wing Ewan Cameron came inside and Thistlethwaite finished for Jones to convert impressively.Yarnbury were not been overun but whereas their attacks were snuffed out particularly when winger Josh Bateson tried to get clear but was well tackled by the Roundhegians defence.Winger Ewan Cameron then used his pace to go in for another try and to rub salt in to Yarnbury when they tried to play out of defence in impressive style Thwistlethwaite ripped out the ball and strolled under the posts.Yarnbury were not getting the bounce of the ball but attacked up field and quick thinking from a tap penalty saw winger Josh Bateson dive over from close range to give a loosing consolation point to the home side before Pound hit the post with his conversion.

Elliot Jackson got over for Roundhegians final try inevitably converted by Jones to rub in the final score on a day when everything went right for the opponents but not for the home side and what started with a close encounter ran away from the Horsforth side and tighter defence for the whole game is needed in this league.Loosing influential No8 Jimmy Cryan to injury early on in the second half disrupted the home side and will be a big miss for the cup game at home next week to North Ribblesdale.