Under 11’s succesful trip to Leeds

The under 11’s travelled to West Park Leeds to play both the home team and Moortown in what for Ripon was a successful trip to our West Yorkshire neighbours. Report below.

The first match saw Ripon take on the other visiting team from Moortown. With a shaky start by the Ripon team ,with a number of missed tackles and not a lot of possession ,it was Moortown who claimed the first points as they barged over the try line in the corner. With the conversion missed they took a 5-0 lead which finally seemed to wake up the Ripon team. They gained good possession from a scrum and George Foster made the initial break before feeding Harry lamb  for the score. Foster added the conversion to take Ripon into the lead. Ripon now applied the pressure to Moortown who were forced back onto their own try line and eventually were pressured into touching down giving Ripon a 5 metre scrum. The resulting good possession from the scrum made the space for Harry Lamb to cross for his and Ripon’s second try. With George Foster missing the conversion the score moved onto 5-12. Moortown tried to take the game back to Ripon ,but dropped possession gave the ball back to Ripon and Harry Lamb again crossed the line for the final try of the match. George Foster re-found his kicking boots and added the conversion to make the final score 5-19 to Ripon.

 Ripon then went straight into their second game and following a number of substitutions they took on the home team from West Park. Still buzzing after the first match it was Ripon who forced the early play with good possession and force the home team back to their own try line. A penalty was the result and good hands by the backs finally free up Harry Lamb to score the first try of the game. Finn Hassall added the conversion to make the score 0-5. A period of good play and possession followed from Ripon with the ball moving left and right across the field. A kick out of defence from West Park force Ripon back but the return run from Tom Stringer takes the play all the way back deep into the West Park half before he is halted by a good tackle. Unfortunately this is the end for Tom as he limped off with an injured knee. Undeterred Ripon continue to attack and the break through again came from the backs as Finn Hassall dummies the West Park defence three times before feeding Tom Newby who managed to draw the remainder of the West Park defence before he slipped the ball to Josh Petts to finish off the best move of the match. Hassall added the conversion to move the score onto 0-14. Not finished yet the home team finally got some good possession and put the Ripon line under some pressure. From a resulting penalty they crash over, add the conversion, to cut the score to 7-14. Ripon then had to dig deep in defence to hold out the home team as they went looking for the equalising score. However it wasn’t to be found and Ripon held out to complete a good mornings rugby.

Next week we are at home to Thirsk so everyone down for a 10 o clock start, any parents looking to help out will be appreciated as we are the duty team along with the under 9’s. Don’t be shy speak to Ian, Adam, Phil or Andy the more help the better!!!